2017 Saint Cosme Châteauneuf-du-Pape 750 ml

Getting access to this famous, staggeringly rich, tiny-production Châteauneuf-du-Pape is like getting a hot tip in the stock market. Buy while you have the chance and watch the value soar for as long as you can stand to wait. 

An icon of the region, in the company of Vieux Télégraphe and Domaine de la Janasse, Château de Saint Cosme is “unquestionably one of the reference point estates… in the entire southern Rhône Valley,” according to Rhône expert Jeb Dunnuck. 

Sourced from three of the appellation’s best climats, including the legendary, galet-strewn La Crau, the supple 2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape displays its pedigree on its sleeve, already a beauty. The palate is expansive, polished and spicy, with notes of black cherry, incense, and fresh wild game. Anchored in its fruit density, the wine is simultaneously lifted by the powerful, intense aromatics, tinged with lavender.

In a glowing review, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate burnished this wine’s must-buy status: “Gracefully melds traces of vanilla and baking spices with seductive cherries and toasted almonds," before calling the wine, "ready to go." Dunnuck agreed, calling it “outstanding” and “hard to resist.” But here’s the catch: Saint Cosme always produces comparatively low volumes. 2017 cut the usual allocations even lower, with yields severely down across the region. Simply put, there's not much to go around.

The man behind the wine, Louis Barruol, is a 14th generation vigneron. His cellar features a still-functional section that the Romans built in the year 100. The Barruols know this land inside and out, and that bone-deep sense for terroir shows. Like a composer teasing every nuance out of each orchestra section, Louis brilliantly captures subtleties of vineyard and vintage that other winemakers miss.

From La Crau, the most famous vineyard in the region, he nails the trademark “Christmas cake” notes and builds the wine’s fine-boned tannic structure. To that base, he adds fruit from Valori, whose sand and pebbles contribute finesse and perfume, and Christia, lending freshness and silken texture from its clay-sand soils and north-easterly exposure.

Exceptional dryness, healthy summer warmth, and low rainfall led Châteauneuf-du-Pape winemakers to describe 2017 as “a bonsai vintage”: characterized by tiny, powerfully flavored, tightly concentrated clusters. As a result, even with supply at an all-time low, the structure and age-worthiness of this Saint Cosme bottling is off the charts.

Our investment advice: buy early, and don’t get stuck hoping for more to materialize.