Domaine Sainte Anne Cotes du Rhone Villages, 2000

This wine is as fresh and fruit-oriented as it was seven years ago. It may have changed color slightly, but it's still a deep plummy red. The nose is more typical of Sainte Anne's simple Cotes du Rhone than the Villages--gushing with blueberry fruit, garrigue and a resinous vanilla quality that does not derive from oak. (Sainte Anne's wines fermented in stainless steel and aged in concrete tanks.) There is fresh fruit savor but less complexity than I found in the 1998 and 1998 Villages. As with the CDR from nearly any vintage, it's smooth and sweet on the palate with no noticeable tannins but impressive concentration from the peels and ripe stems. There are hints of pomegranate on the finish.

Sainte Anne winemaker Alain Steinmaier is clearly very careful not to expose his wines to too much air during processing. As a result, they stay young and lively long after similar wines start to fade. My only problem with this 2000 CDR Villages is that it does not seem destined to become any more complex or subtle than it is right now.