CDP Lieu Dit Pignan, Domaine Pierre-Henri Morel 2015

The 2015 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Lieu Dit Pignan is 100% Grenache from a lieu-dit that lies just next to Rayas, in the center of the appellation. It's a classic, structured 2015 that offers beautiful notes of blackberries, plums, licorice and roasted garrigue. Full-bodied, concentrated and structured, with enough tannin to warrant short-term cellaring, it's going to have 15-20 years of overall longevity. It’s unquestionably one of the top wines in the vintage.

The 100% Grenache 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape Lieu Dit Pignan comes from a site renowned for its sandy soils and is matured in used 600-liter demi-muids. It reveals a beguiling nose of baking spices, dusty earth, garrigue and red raspberries. This full-bodied, plush wine is also amazingly fresh, with almost painful concentration and intensity that powers through the mocha and caramel-tinged finish. Ideally, give it a few years in the cellar and drink it over the next decade.