100/100 Robert Parker 10/2007: Along with Clos St.-Jean’s Deus Ex Machina, Vieille Julienne’s 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve (200 cases produced) is the wine of the vintage. From 101-year old Grenache vines planted in sandy soils, it boasts a blackpurple color as well as a gorgeous perfume of smoke, meat, blackberries, sweet cherries, creme de cassis, licorice, spice, and a hint of pine forestunderbrush. The fruit dominates in this rich, intense, remarkable effort. This is... one of the most legendary Chateauneuf du Papes ever made. Over the last decade, Jean-Paul Daumen, the proprietor, winemaker, and Mr. Everything at Vieille Julienne, has emerged as one of France’s most compelling wine producers. Taking advantage of the ancient vines his family owns in the northern sector of Chateauneuf du Pape, and biodynamically farming the entire vineyard, he has produced extraordinary wines since 1998. Daumen’s winemaking philosophy is remarkably simple – old vines, tiny yields of around 20 hectoliters per hectare, no SO2 during vinification, aging in neutral tanks or wood, and bottling without fining or filtration. The results are wines of extraordinary purity, and naked expressions of terroir as well as the personality of the vintage. I cannot recommend these wines highly enough. Sadly, as with most of the world’s most majestic wines, production is relatively limited, and the demand is insatiable. 100/100 Robert Parker 08/2014: Kicking off a series of wines that I consider to be as good as it gets, the 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve incorporates slightly more Grenache than normal and checks in at over 16% alcohol; certainly you’d never know it by tasting it however, and it’s perfectly balanced. Still inky purple in color, it possesses beautiful freshness and focus, with killer notes of blackcurrants, liquid violets, licorice, crushed rock and cured meats all soaring from the glass. As with the ’09 and ’06, it has off-the-charts concentration, thrilling mid-palate depth and serious structure. Give it another handful of years and it will be one of the longest lived Chateauneufs out there.