Rayas

Producer: Chateau Rayas

Vintage: 1995

Country: France

Volume: 750ml

Alcohol: 12%

Price: £4070.00 Duty Paid
per 10 bottles

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When we acquired this stock just recently, we felt obliged to taste a bottle to ensure that the wine was drinking and to see if it lived up to its legend as the greatest Chateau Rayas ever made. It was in no other words the finest Chateauneuf du Pape any of us had ever tasted. This wine is for the real connoisseur and is very rare. By purchasing the 10 bottles you will have more bottles than any wine merchant in the United Kingdom and with Supply and Demand there is only one way the price will go....up. But beaware that once you have tasted one you will find it hard not to taste another.
- Corkr Fine Wines 100 points.

The 1995 is spectacular. When Emmanuel Reynaud said it was evolving quickly, in essence repudiating this vintage, I immediately drank two bottles of this glorious elixir. It does not reveal the over-ripeness of the 1990, bringing to mind a hypothetical blend of the great 1989 and 1978. Deeply-colored and still young, with black currant/creme de cassis-like characteristics, huge body, yet great structure and delineation, this is a classic Rayas that is totally different than the 1990. It should continue to improve in the bottle and may merit an even higher score. While it can be drunk now, it will be even better with 3-4 years of cellaring. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2020.
- Robert Parker 96 points.

I have had the 1995 Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape four times since it was bottled, and can state unequivocally that it is the quintessential Rayas. The wine is extraordinarily concentrated, with an unbelievable concentration of ripe black raspberry, cherry, and kirsch flavors that are not dissimilar from a great vintage (i.e., 1947, 1950, 1982) of the famed Pomerol, Chateau Lafleur. It possesses an old vine intensity, multiple layers of richness, and admirable structure, as well as surprisingly fine acidity. This is a phenomenally compelling, but backward Rayas that is more concentrated than the 1990, and, yes, as ageworthy as the surreal 1978. Owners should resist drinking it for another 4-5 years; it will last for 20-30 years. This is among the most awesome young wines I have tasted this year.
- Robert Parker 99 points.

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