Rhône 2010 – Châteauneuf-du-Pape reds

Tomorrow – other southern Rhône reds.  See here for a guide to our coverage of  the Rhône's lovely 2010s and details of UK merchants currently offering them en primeur. 

Below are my tasting notes on more than 250 reds from Châteauneuf. Most of them were tasted blind in massive series, first of regular bottlings and then of the special cuvées that now proliferate and could be said to diminish the regular 'Tradition' bottlings. The special, much more expensive, bottlings are not always superior to the regular ones in my view – particularly when there has been excessive use of new...