2019 Château de Nalys (E. Guigal) Grand Vin Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Hints of vanilla, menthol and cedar gently mark the nose of the 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape Grand Vin, which saw about 20% new oak in its élevage. There's plenty of raspberry and black cherry to balance out the ledger in this balanced, age-worthy effort. It's full-bodied and labeled a full 1% higher in alcohol than its Saintes Pierres sibling, with a rich, ripe mouthfeel, ample concentration and a long, velvety finish that adds hints of salted licorice. Tasty stuff. (JC) 95+

Saturated ruby. Expansive, smoke- and mineral-accented black raspberry, cherry cola, cassis, baking spice and succulent herb scents show outstanding detail and lift. Sweet and expansive in the mouth, offering vibrant red/blue fruit liqueur, candied lavender, spicecake and licorice flavors that stain the palate. Powerful yet impressively lively and focused on the extremely long, floral- and spice-driven finish, which is framed by steadily building tannins. The historic domaine Château de Nalys was long known more for its potential than for the actual quality of the wines, which ranged from inoffensive to pretty bad. Producers in the region used to lament that such great terroir was essentially going to waste. The estimable Guigal family, who have been making a négociant Châteauneuf-du-Pape since 1946, purchased the château in July 2017. Two-thousand eighteen marks the first vintage that the Guigals were able to oversee everything from pruning through flowering to the harvest and on to bottling. The 2018s and 2017s are showing extremely well, as are the 2019s, even if they are still a little cranky until they get some air. In 2020 the Guigals expanded their Châteauneuf footprint even further by purchasing the historic Clefs d’Or domaine, which comprises almost 50 hectares, including a sizable chunk of prime real estate in La Crau, much of it extremely old vines (as in, back to the 1890s). All of the fruit from those vineyards will become part of the Château de Nalys bottlings