2017 Domaine de Saint Paul L'Insolite Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rhone Valley 750 ml

Few dare to make 100% Syrah Châteauneuf. A million little things have to go right—but when the stars align, as they did for Domaine de Saint Paul’s 2017 L’Insolite, in a year the Wine Advocate singled out as “a vintage that favored Syrah”—the result is pure magic.

Produced with the assistance of the late, great star enologist Philippe Cambie, it combines the silky elegance of a great Côte-Rôtie with an extra wallop of southerly Châteauneuf power—a densely layered, dark-fruited, 96-point gem.

The top Châteauneuf wines bearing the late Cambie’s magic touch will easily set you back triple-digits. But unlike the identically-scored 2017 Sanctus Sanctorum from his client Château Clos Saint-Jean ($280), we can offer the ultra-rare L’Insolite at a hefty discount.

Syrah can be tough to get right in Châteauneuf—the climate is much warmer than in the grape’s original Northern Rhône home, so it needs to be on sites that limit its natural vigor. But forced to grow small, concentrated berries in special vineyards, and farmed to deliver perfect ripeness later in the season, Domaine de Saint Paul is able to conjure magic out of the grape.

In 1958 Charles Establet, scion of one of the region’s oldest winemaking families, purchased the historic Domaine de Saint-Paul. But it wasn’t until 2002, however, when they enlisted the help of the acclaimed Philippe Cambie—named “Best Winemaker of the Year” by Robert Parker in 2010—that the estate’s reputation truly started to soar.

In 2013, he worked with the family to release the first vintage of their unprecedented “L’Insolite.” The accolades quickly piled up, and the 2017 is the best version yet.