(60% grenache and 40% mourvedre): Vivid purple. Powerful, intensely perfumed aromas of black and blue fruits, potpourri and smoky Indian spices, with a bright mineral nuance adding vivacity. Offers an array of sappy dark fruit and floral flavors and suggestions of allspice, star anise and candied licorice. Finishes on a sweet note of candied lavender, with outstanding energy and focus.

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A perfect wine (and equal to the profound 2007), the 2010 Chateauneuf du Pape Deus-Ex Machina was cropped at under 20 hectoliters per hectare. Extremely full-bodied and dense purple-colored, it exhibits notes of blueberries, blackberries, licorice, incense, camphor, vanillin and chocolate-covered espresso beans (no doubt from the new demi-muids in which the Mourvedre component was aged). The tannins are noticeable, but relatively silky. The most muscular and formidable 2010 in this portfolio, its expansiveness, mind-boggling richness and intensity, and 60-second finish are the stuff of legends. Forget this remarkable Chateauneuf du Pape for five years and drink it over the following thirty years.

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This is loaded with bittersweet ganache, espresso, roasted fig, blackberry confiture and graphite notes, all of which manage to fall in stride together. Offers lots of briary grip, with a Black Forest cake note driving through the finish. Dark and dense, but with terrific cut

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