The 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve des Celestins (probably) is again profoundly different and could be a 1989 deja vu all over again so to speak. It is a dense ruby/purple-hued, massive, full-bodied wine offering abundant notes of beef blood, figs, roasted herbs, lavender, soy, hoisin sauce, kirsch, black currants and plums. There is plenty of tannin and this cuvee will need at least a decade of cellaring once it has been released. It possesses an aromatic and structural profile not dissimilar from the 1989 (a wine that, at age 21, remains an adolescent). Henri Bonneau, who is now 70 years of age, continues to make Chateauneuf du Pape the way it was made 50-100 years ago ... long cask aging in old barrels and bottling it, as he says jokingly, “when I need money.” A visit to these cellars is always one of my most rewarding of the year. The barrels and foudres that will probably be used in the Cuvee Marie Beurrier all have the letter “G” on them and everything with Reserve des Celestins potential has the letter “P” on it. Bonneau went through a litany of the issues that confronted the 2009 vintage, particularly the drought that affected much of the Grenache planted in many of Chateauneuf du Pape’s terroirs, and he reminded me that he had predicted it would be a problem when I saw him last year. Bonneau continues to claim the 2007s are too showy and flamboyant to ever develop into a great, long-lived vintage.Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173

The vintage about which Bonneau is most excited is the 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve des Celestins. This is the type of wine that gets Bonneau “rocking and Rhoning,” so to speak. Structured, dense, tannic, powerful and obviously built for 30-40 years of longevity, it possesses a dense garnet/plum, murky color, great fruit and huge notes of lavender, soy, hoisin sauce, smoked duck, beef blood, black currants, plums and figs. This massive, concentrated wine finishes with excruciatingly high tannins and lots of structure. I can’t see this 2005 being ready for drinking for another 8-10 years, although the aromatics are worth the price of admission even if you don’t swallow the wine. This amazing Chateauneuf du Pape may turn out to be one of the two or three finest wines of the vintage as well as the longest lived. Visiting with Henri Bonneau at his subterranean wine cellar, which could easily double as a bat cave, is always one of the highlights of a year of wine tasting. This property began estate bottling in 1927, with Bonneau’s father, but can trace its history back hundreds of years. Of course, since the death of Jacques Reynaud of Rayas in 1997, Henri remains the patron saint of all things “ancien” in Chateauneuf du Pape. He is revered like no other producer in the village, and while getting an appointment is never easy, once he is familiar enough with someone, he is nothing less than a hoot and a howl to talk to and to taste with. As Harry Karis points out in his absolutely magnificent book on Chateauneuf du Pape, The Chateauneuf du Pape Wine Book, Bonneau’s favorite subjects are gastronomy, the Algerian War, and a third one that Harry didn’t mention, young women. Speaking with a Provencal twang, it’s not always easy to understand exactly what he’s saying, but his animated face and extraordinary passion for these subjects, as well as his own wines, are always a treat. Everything about Bonneau’s estate goes against modernism. The cellars are filthy, and the barrels range in age from 10 years old to probably over a century. He has a relatively small estate of just under 17 acres, and he doesn’t really bottle anything for at least five years. His most recent bottlings include the 2004 Cuvee Marie Beurrier and Reserve des Celestins and the 2005 Reserve des Celestins, which won’t be released until next year. Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173