Domaine De La Grosse Pierre Chiroubles Claudius 2020 750 ML

The 2020 Chiroubles “Claudius” bottling from Domaine de la Grosse Pierre is another ripe example of this vintage, coming in at 14.5 percent octane. But, like so many of the top examples from 2020, the wine is impressively vibrant and pure, showing absolutely no signs of over-ripeness in its beautiful bouquet of black cherries, pomegranate, a hint of bitter chocolate, peonies, dark soil tones, fresh thyme and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with a great core of fruit, firm, chewy tannins, excellent focus and mineral undertow and a long, balanced and quite youthful finish. I cannot remember advocating cellaring before drinking a young example of Chiroubles, but the 2020 Claudius from Pauline Passot is going to demand some time hibernating to blossom.