The 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape la Reserve Secrete (65% Grenache, 25% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre) is about as good as it gets in 2004. Ripe, sexy, full-bodied, meaty, and yet always light on its feet and graceful, it offers lots of incense, fig, peanut and leather aromas and flavors that continue to change in the glass. It's drinking at point today, yet will keep through 2024, although there's no upside.

The 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve Secrete is 65% Grenache, 25% Syrah, and 10% Mourvedre aged 18 months (of which 25% is aged in new small oak barrels and 75% in tank) and then blended together. It is a superb wine and one of the candidates for wine of the vintage. The proprietors meant for this wine to age a long time (the 2000 is still an infant and very primary) and this wine exhibits notes of pain grille intermixed with licorice, black cherry liqueur, blackberries, smoke, roasted meats, and licorice. Dense, powerful, and viscous, with terrific fruit, intensity, purity, and a multi-dimensional palate and length, this is a wine that will require 2-3 years of bottle age and drink well for 15-20 years. Importer: Langdon Shiverick, Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861-6800