($120; 60% grenache, 20% syrah, 10% cinsault and 10% vaccarese) Inky ruby. Exotically perfumed bouquet of cherry-cola, licorice, incense and cracked pepper. Sappy and round, with deep dark berry and sassafras flavors, gently chewy tannins and a late kick of black pepper. Finishes with mounting sweetness, exceptional clarity and lingering spiciness.

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Blackish crimson. Very rich and sweet and limpid and transparent and garrigue and expressive. Well done! A vineyard rather than cellar wine… Pretty hot on the finish. But lots of pleasure and genuine.

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In 2006, only a handful of other producers in Chateauneuf du Pape hit the heights achieved by Clos St.-Jean with the following wine. Virtually perfect, the 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape La Combe des Fous possesses a dense ruby/purple color in addition to an extraordinary nose of ground pepper, spice box, black currants, and kirsch, and full-bodied, powerful, spicy flavors. Resembling haute couture with its seamless integration of acidity, tannin, and alcohol, this is a prodigious wine to smell, taste, and consume.

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Ripe and well put together, with an enticing core of blackberry, blueberry and fig fruit pushing notes of cocoa powder, melted licorice and fruitcake. The long finish is fruit-driven, but has nice buried minerality and plenty of grip.

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