Browse Tag

châteauneuf-du-pape

Weren’t they all white?

Perrin “Château de Beaucastel” 1999 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc (Rhône) – Wax and peach skins. Sun-dried flowers. Quince. Less weighty than a Zind Humbrecht with which it is paired, which says more about the ZH than it does about this wine. Very nice. (7/11)

Bos on the docks

Boiron “Bosquet des Papes” 1998 Châteauneuf-du-Pape “Cuvée Chantemerle Vieilles Vignes” (Rhône) – Salt. Mature, evening drying, with a lot of lacticity (is that even a word? it is now) and Flubber-like stretchiness to the palate. Was this woody in its youth? I don’t recall. It sure seems like it might have been, given the way it tastes now. (7/11)

White hat

Texier 2000 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc (Rhône) – Nut oils and rocks. Fullish, as these things are, but its hold on sanity seems tenuous. I wonder if holding it this long represented an equally tenuous hold on sanity? Well, I’ve got more, so we’ll see. (5/11)

Ussegliold goose

Pierre Usseglio 2000 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône) – Aging in a clingy, somewhat sloppy fashion, not bringing much of tertiary interest to replace a fading fruit goopfest. It’s good, but it’s decidedly not very good. Dark berries, soil, black pepper, and simplicity from start to finish. On the positive side of “eh,” but still “eh.” (2/11)

Bosquetball

Boiron “Bosquet des Papes” 1999 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône) – I expected this to be considerably more advanced than it is, but frankly it’s showing in such a way that if this were from my stash (it’s from the wine list at Hearth in Manhattan), I’d hold the rest for another five years at minimum before I even considered opening another bottle. Dark earth, rosemary, morel, a bit of blackberryish meatfruit, pepper, and then there’s that black licorice/green olive element. Still highly structured. Very, very puzzling. (11/10)

Sticks in my Crau

Domaine du Père Pape “La Crau de ma Mère” 2000 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône) – Beef, leather, iron, blood. In a good way, of course, because this is the Rhône. But it does drink a little like someone had a knife fight at the meat-packing plant. The organoleptics are fully-developed here, and even though the structure isn’t – there’s still a fair bit of tannin – I’d drink up, especially as this frigid-cellared (8/10)

Féraud salad

Féraud “Domaine du Pégau” 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône) – From an arctic cellar. Raw musculature, flexed and buffed. There’s a deep, dark, Rhône-ish throb of black earth and smoked heart, but it’s still very structured. Heavy without being overweighted, and from this particular source it has many years left to unclench before it’s a genial party guest. (7/10)

Pretty palace

Beaucastel 1996 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge (Rhône) – I drink so little young Châteauneuf these days that I forget how good it can be. And make no mistake: this is still young CdP. The preludes of meat, herb, raisined (but not jammy) fruit, and so forth are all here, but still bundled in a very primary structure. The end result is powerful, long, and nowhere near ready yet. (7/10)

Bravay for the straight guy

Bravay “Domaine de Ferrand” 1998 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône) – Huge, and an early dalliance with fruit chews eventually veers towards something more mature. Still tannic and very ripe, but I think this has fully rounded into all the form it’s ever going to have. Drink soonish. (7/10)