“The 2005s are well on their way to being the most anticipated set of Rhône Valley wines...These are thoroughly ripe wines but the majority are also lively and pure—a rare combination for the region. ”—Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar

Consider the forms of a ballet dancer and a bodybuilder. One is powerful yet lithe, the other is also powerful but densely built.

We're unfortunately finding far more Schwarzeneggers, so to speak, than Baryshnikovs in the southern Rhône of late—but not at Domaine la Millière. What is so refreshing about winemaker Michel Arnaud is that when everyone around him seems to be caught up in a war of vinous muscle, with wines pushing past 14 and 15 percent alcohol, he has focused instead on wines of finesse.

Arnaud in 2005 has crafted a gorgeously well-balanced yet lusciously complex, spice-driven, classic southern Rhône wine in his old-vine Côtes du Rhône. It is a wine that is a joy to drink, and importantly, doesn't leave you lurching after the second glass. Millière wines repeatedly show that even with the doomsday predictions of global warming and increasingly Sahara-sultry years ahead of us, a diligent winemaker can still craft harmonious wines with profoundly beautiful, robust flavors that are impressively bold as well as lithely seductive.

Arnaud's impressive terroir in Mont Redon-Cabrières, just on the border of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, gives old-vine Grenache everything it needs to thrive. Flashed-aged for just four months in teen-aged Burgundian barrels, this knock-out 2005 Côtes du Rhône shows great complexity and spice. A very special cuvée from an incredibly talented artisan.