CDP Cuvée Félix, Domaine Bois de Boursan 1998

The brilliant Cuvee des Felix (the debut vintage) is aging beautifully. Dark plum/garnet, with an extraordinary nose of graphite, lavender, blueberry, black raspberry, garrigue, and licorice, the wine offers up an abundant concoction of Provencal scents followed by a full-bodied, opulent mouthfeel that has hit its plateau of maturity. There's not a hard edge to be found. Full-bodied, even sumptuous, with terrific complexity, it should easily drink well for another 8-10 years.

This is a Provençal, peppery, spicy, garrigue-scented wine, with extraordinary concentration, loads of glycerin, full body, yet no sense of heaviness or lack of definition. Enormously-endowed and majestic, it possesses a huge mid-palate as well as a blockbuster finish. This thrilling, classic Châteauneuf du Pape can be drunk now or cellared for 18-20 years. Proprietor Jean-Paul Versino is now entrenched as one of the appellation's super-stars.