Man, these 2019 Rhone reds continue to really impress. This vintage seems to have produced a bevy of Grenache-based lovelies with not only nicely concentrated fruit without excessive alcohol (no mean feat these days) but also fresh, lifted aromatics and the kind of finesse we haven’t seen around here for a while. It’s also a vintage where Mourvedre seems to have done particularly well and its darker, more rustic, brooding fruit and pepper notes are on vivid display in wines like Boislauzon’s who use a large percentage of the grape in their blends. The brother-sister act of Mas de Boislauzon have cellars that sit right on the border between Chateauneuf du Pape and the Cotes du Rhone appellations with a total of around 70 acres of organic-biodynamic vineyards on either side. While their Chateauneufs are uniformly stunning and include an all-Mourvedre cuvee- it’s their Cotes du Rhone Villages, grown within five kilometers of the cellar in the communes of Boislauzon, Coudoulet, and La Gironde that really set a very high bar for both quality and value. While over half of the Villages cuvee is Grenache, it’s, once again, the Mourvedre in the blend that informs the complex, garrigue-y aromatics and adds that bit of dark earthiness to the wine while Syrah adds color, base notes of concentrated blueberry, black loamy earth and white pepper to a lovely, characterful red that hits all of the high notes. And the price? Well, for under $20 a bottle, you’re not going to find a better value anywhere. And we will be raising the stakes shortly when Boislauzon’s 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape Rouge gets unpacked. With a good of 70+-year old Mourvedre in the blend, it’s a stupendous effort. Stay tuned!    Jeb Dunnuck: The 2019 Côtes du Rhône Villages isn’t far off the 2017, yet it’s perhaps even slightly more concentrated, offering more red and blue fruits, loads of peppery garrigue, and spicy aromatics to go with a medium to full-bodied, concentrated style on the palate. Displaying the vintage’s fresher, more focused character, with beautiful mid-palate depth, this is going to be another no-brainer Côtes du Rhône-Villages that will have 4-6 years of prime drinking. 92 points