I remember the 1998 La Vieille Julienne Cuvee Reserve as one of the remarkable wines of the vintage in its youth, but two bottles opened from my cellar were perplexing and have under-mined my confidence in where this wine might be heading. There was an oxidized (stale nuts) smell that is suggestive of fino Sherry in the wine. Both bottles had it, and while it did seem to subside with some aeration, and the wine is certainly full-bodied, powerful, and rich, there was a lack of definition and purity in the wine that raises cause for alarm. There was not much of it made, and recent vintages such as the 1999, 2000, and 2001 have been spectacular wines, about as good as Chateauneuf du Pape can be, so I just wonder if I was unlucky with the bottles I purchased, or if this is symptomatic of the wine itself.