At a recent dinner party there was a selection of superb wines but the standout was a beauty from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, this week’s NWOW Five Star Wine, the La Bastide Saint-Dominique, Secrets de Pignan 2007 ($50)

The husband and wife team of Eric Bonnet and Julia Moreau who run the winery are part of a dynamic group of young CNP winemakers whose wines are challenging the famous names of the region in terms of quality, if not yet, thankfully, in terms of price.

On a visit to them last year Julia explained to me their approach to this kind of modern, fruit-driven winemaking: “Old-fashioned Châteauneuf is very gamy, very heavy, we prefer freshness, elegance, minerality.”

These are on fine display in the Secrets de Pignan, a single vineyard wine of astoundingly intense fruit flavors from 70-80 year old vines.

The old, old vines.

It is 95% grenache, but not obviously so, and is redolent of blackberries and black cherry fruits. It has a seductive, heady, perfumed aroma –  it goes up through my nose, races across my eyes and explodes in the front of my brain. And all this before I’ve even begun to taste.

On the palate it’s focused but surprisingly light and elegant. This beguiling contradiction results from the rich concentration of the old-vine fruit, and the wise decision of Eric and Julia to vinify and age the precious nectar entirely in stainless steel, with not a touch of oak. This allows the true Hallelujah Chorus of the grapes’ splendor to shine through unhampered by the weight of unnecessary and distracting oak.

Not many winemakers would have had the understanding, yet alone the courage, to take such an unusual step. But these imaginative young vignerons do, and the results are satisfyingly impressive.