The 2018 Chateauneuf du Pape Barbe Rac has turned out beautifully. Stunning aromas of red raspberries and black cherries, crushed stone and even a hint of roses emerge on the nose, while the full-bodied palate is expansive and silky, ending in a flurry of gently dusty tannins that only further accentuate this wine's fruity depths. Although approachable now, it should drink well for more than a decade.

Produced from yields of just 15 hectoliters per hectare, the 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Barbe Rac is a powerful, 100% Grenache wine raised in concrete. It's a big, full-bodied beauty, loaded with scents of kirsch and framboise, stuffed with ripe tannins and with a finish that lasts for several minutes. Give it 5 years in the cellar and drink it over the next decade or so.

Picked two weeks earlier than the historical norm, the 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Barbe Rac is 100% old-vine Grenache from a warm subregion of the appellation. It boasts huge black cherry fruit and touches of garrigue, carried by a full-bodied, rich palate. This is tannic but ripe, with a long, long, long licorice-tinged finish. Yes, I wrote long three times in my original notes!

The 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape Barbe Rac is 100% Grenache, but this parcel is located on the western edge of the appellation, in what Chapoutier describes as a hot, dry location—even in the context of the appellation. From vines planted in 1901-1902, this is a dense, plummy wine, oozing with concentrated fruit and even turning a bit fudge-like on the long, supple finish. I don't expect it to age quite as well as the Croix de Bois, but it's still a thrilling wine.

The 600-case 2014 Chateauneuf du Pape Barbe Rac (100% Grenache) is one of the wines of the vintage and offers shocking levels of concentration and mid-palate depth to go with classic notes of black currants, dried earth, leather and graphite. It lacks the concentration and depth of the 2015, but is one serious 2014 that has ample tannin and over a decade of longevity.