Rhône 2016 – Châteauneuf Cuvées Spéciales

Warning: you are now entering a high-alcohol zone. It's an especially marked problem for a vintage which was as naturally ripe as 2016 was in the Rhône, and is exacerbated in the Cuvées Spéciales of Châteaueneuf-du-Pape, which so often seem to champion power and extraction at all costs. In the worst instances, the result is a muddled soup of angry tannin, burning alcohol and putrid fruit – yet packaged and priced as an apparently superior blend. 

In fact, the...