2019 Saint Cosme Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rhone Valley 750 ml

Château de Saint Cosme’s Louis Barruol is as respected as any winemaker in the Rhône—and maybe all of France. Critic Jeb Dunnuck built his reputation as an authority on Rhône wines, and he called Barruol’s Saint Cosme “unquestionably one of the reference point estates…in the entire southern Rhône Valley.” 

Saint Cosme is synonymous with Gigondas, where the Barruol family has owned their property since 1490, but red-wine fans know Barruol’s spectacular Saint Cosme as one of the greats of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. 

The 2019 version of the Saint Cosme is without question one of the must-have bottles from the Southern Rhône. Grown in a phenomenal vintage on three of the appellation’s best climats—including the legendary, galet-strewn La Crau—it’s a gorgeous wine that lives up to its blue-chip pedigree and stands with triple-digit-priced stars like Vieux Télégraphe and Domaine de la Janasse.  

Louis Barruol is a 14th-generation vigneron, and even today, a part of his cellar that was built by the Romans around the year 100 still exists. The Barruols know the land of the Southern Rhone inside and out, and that bone-deep sense for the terroir shows. Like a composer teasing every nuance out of each orchestra section, Barroul brilliantly captures subtleties of vineyard and vintage that other winemakers might miss.

From La Crau, the most famous vineyard in the region, he nails the trademark Christmas-cake notes and houses them within the wine’s fine-boned tannic structure. To that base, he adds fruit from two vineyards: the sand- and pebble-strewn Valori, and Christia, where vines rooted in clay-sand soils enjoy the benefits of a northeasterly exposure.

This is a Châteauneuf to be reckoned with.