Domaine Saint Préfert Réserve Auguste Favier Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2007

The dark ruby/purple-tinged 2005 Chacirc;teauneuf-du-Pape Reacute;serve Auguste Favier offers up a dense, peppery bouquet of incense, black currants, and herbs. Full-bodied and rich with good acidity as well as noticeable tannin, it should be drinkable between 2012ndash;2020+.

A wine for patient connoisseurs and long-term cellaring is the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve Auguste Favier. A blend of 85% Grenache and 15% old vine Cinsault, half is aged in cement tanks, and the rest in 2- to 3-year-old 600-liter demi-muids. This inky/blue/purple-tinged 2007 offers up aromas of graphite, camphor, incense, blueberries, and black fruits. Full-bodied, young and unevolved, with massive depth, great concentration, and super purity, texture, and length, it requires 2ndash;4 years of cellaring, and should easily age for two decades or more.

Dense purple-colored, the grapy, young and unevolved but promising 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve Auguste Favier has a stunning nose of creme de cassis and raspberry liqueur intermixed with ground pepper, roasted Provencal herbs in addition to spice box and graphite. Full-bodied with terrific fruit intensity, a multi-dimensional mouthfeel that stains the palate, and plenty of acidity and tannin, this is built for the long haul. Anticipated maturity: 2010ndash;2025.

Complex aromatics of garrigue, lavender, kirsch, raspberry and earth soar from the surprisingly evolved 2009 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve Auguste Favier. Made from an interesting blend of 82% Grenache, 15% old vine Cinsault and 3% Syrah, half aged in cement tank and half in 600-liter, two- to three-year-old demi-muids, this wine reveals no hard edges in its medium to full-bodied texture. It cuts a broad, creamy swath across the palate, and should offer remarkable drinking when released in 2011.

Jam-packed with hedonistic layers of crushed plum, warm fig and macerated blackberry and boysenberry fruit, all inflected with notes of pepper, tobacco, sweet tapenade and smoked apple wood. The long, flattering finish has a creamy mouthfeel. Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Mourvegrave;dre. Drink now through 2025.

Very rich and caressing, with lovely plum sauce, melted licorice and cassis aromas and flavors all woven together and backed by ample but velvety tannins. The long, tar-stained finish shows well-integrated grip, while the fruit echoes. Best from 2012 through 2023.

One canrsquo;t speak highly enough of the efforts by proprietress Isabel Ferrando, who has resurrected this well-known estate in Chateauneuf du Pape. This is a beautifully made wine that merits serious attention. The 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve Auguste Favier, made from 40- to 100-year-old vines in a blend of 80% Grenache and equal parts Cinsault and Syrah aged in both tank and old barrels, has the deepest color of the trio in 2004 and a stunningly intense nose of black currants, kirsch, spice box, garrigue, and licorice. It is heady, opulent, full-bodied, multi-layered, and certainly a candidate for one of the superb Chateauneuf du Papes of the vintage. Its lushness, silky tannins, and broad, alluring style suggest it will be drinkable upon bottling and evolve for 12ndash;15 years.