The 2019 Cotes du Rhone Coudoulet de Beaucastel features scents of tar, black olives and plummy fruit on the nose. It's full-bodied, concentrated and surprisingly crisp, with bright acids and a rather tart, savory finish. It's a solid effort, but nothing more from this normally overachieving bottling.

Tasted as a sample blended from several foudres, the 2018 Cotes du Rhone Coudoulet de Beaucastel features scents of sun-warmed stones and ripe raspberries. Medium to full-bodied, it's plush and open-knit, already giving a lot of pleasure, and finishing zesty and long.