1985 Château Rayas "Réservé" Châteauneuf-du-Pape

I was blown away by the 1985 Châteauneuf-du-Pape. A wine that continued to improve in the glass, it was richly-textured and opulent, with expansive fruit that lingered on the palate for an eternity. It came across as incredibly youthful, in fact I would have never pegged it for a 22-year-old wine had I tasted it blind. (AG)

The 1985 Château Rayas is a superb vintage for this great wine and it remains still a few years away from its absolute apogee, as there is still a bit of backend tannin in need of resolution. The deep, relatively young and classy nose offers up scents of raspberries, black pepper, coffee, roasted game, a touch of wild fennel, a beautifully complex base of soil tones, woodsmoke and garrigue. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, plump and complex, with great depth of fruit at the core, lovely focus and balance, still a bit of old school tannin on the backend and a very long, superb finish. This is a classic Rayas that is certainly an outstanding drink today, but to my palate the wine is still climbing and will be even better with another five to ten years of bottle age, as I would love to see it arrive at the same superb level of refined resolution of a vintage such as the 1979 shows today. A great Rayas.