Another best to date, the 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Cuvée du Papet from Thierry Sabon is pure perfection in a glass. More powerful than the classic cuvée, with killer black raspberries, crushed rocks, garrigue, salty minerality, and iodine, it's deep, full-bodied, concentrated, and sexy, yet has building tannin. It's one of those “iron fist in a velvet glove” wines and continued to gain depth and richness every time I went back to the glass. Old-school, traditional Châteauneuf-du-Pape doesn’t get any better, and readers should beg, borrow or steal to get a hold of this. Hide bottles for 4-5 years (or more), count yourself lucky, and enjoy bottles over the following 2-3 decades