Vinsobres VV Hauts de Julien, Perrin - Château de Beaucastel 2010

Already bottled, the super-concentrated, superb 2010 Vinsobres Les Hauts Julien Vieilles Vignes has off-the-charts richness. Floral notes intermixed with blueberry, blackberry, boysenberry, licorice, truffle and camphor are all present in this superb wine, which is inky bluish/purple to the rim, extremely full-bodied, with great acid and sweet but abundant tannin. This is a wine for patient connoisseurs/partisans of southern Rhone wines. Forget it for 4-5 years and drink it over the following two decades.

The 2010 Cotes du Rhone-Villages Vinsobres Vieilles Vignes Les Hauts Julien is an equal part blend of Syrah and Grenache from 70+ year old vines. A small cuvee of 5,000 bottles, it is a wine of great intensity displaying terrific minerality, a blue/black opaque color, a full-bodied mouthfeel and superb purity as well as length. It begs for 3-4 years of cellaring, and should drink well for 15-20 years.