Readers have no doubt discovered that Georges Duboeuf can produce tasty, delicious, well-made wines from the Cotes du Rhone. The 1995 Domaine des Aires Vieilles is a soft, fruity, well-made wine that is meant to be drunk over the next 1-2 years. It is a finesse-styled Cotes du Rhone with the lightest body and softest texture of the three reviewed in this section. Do not hesitate to serve it slightly chilled.Importers: William Deutsch, Armonk, NY; tel. (914) 273-1221 and Winesellers, Ltd., Skokie, IL; tel. (708) 679-0121

Duboeuf's Rhone Valley selections made their debut with the 1988 vintage, where he admirably demonstrated that his enormous talent for picking high quality cuvees of Gamay (for his Beaujolais) was just as prodigious when it came to picking Rhone Valley cuvees fashioned from Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvedre, and Syrah. For a lighter, fruitier, less muscular style of Cotes du Rhone, look for Duboeuf's 1990 Cotes du Rhone-Aires Vieilles. I just recently had a bottle of the 1989, which remains a lusty glassful of good, spicy, herb and berry-scented Cotes du Rhone. The 1990 is a bit lighter and softer than the 1989, and because of that it will probably have greater crowd-appeal. It should be drunk over the next 1-2 years.