2003 Chateauneuf at Le Pichet- moving on up the food chain.

Le Pichet, Seattle, WA
Tasted Thursday, February 8, 2007 by ScottG with 859 views

Introduction

Tracy Lemke organized a tasting about a year ago for Value 2003 CdP. Link to that tasting is here. http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showthread.php?t=79998 As a follow up he put together another nice event to hit the bigger ticket and higher rated items.

We started with a flight of whites- my notes always suck for white wines so I will omit those, other than to say that 2000 La Nerth CdP Blanc was very oxidized seeming but at the same time quite interesting... and the 2003 Beacastel VV blanc was a thing of beauty. Laser focused and pure- Just delicious.

Flight 1 - Value wines (3 Notes)

  • 2003 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape 89 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    Nice wine to start the night- A pretty, identifiably CdP nose- Cherry, herbs, light earth. Big fruit with a touch of roasted character. Some lightly drying tannins. Overall a pretty wine and nice CdP. Good value.

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  • 2003 Domaine La Millière Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes 90 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    Started a bit flat on the nose- but with a good dose of air this started showing some sappy/piney notes that I tend to Associate with VT- (WRONG!). There is a touch of raisin and roasted blackberry on this one with some firm tannins, but I saw this as a promising wine and another good value.

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  • 2003 Les Cailloux (Lucien et André Brunel) Châteauneuf-du-Pape 87 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    Grapey nose, super ripe and sweet on the palate. Seems a very modern wine- seemed almost grotesquely sweet after the other wines and with the food. Not at all my style, but really no overt faults- no roast, tannins in check, etc.. A real bummer for me as I own some of this- hopefully time will help.

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Flight 2 - Mid Tier (4 Notes)

The Vieux's are generally favorites of mine... perhaps not this year.

  • 2003 Domaine Bois de Boursan Châteauneuf-du-Pape 88 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    My notes are a bit sparse on this one- Tannins are slighly bitter, A nice wine but didn't do a lot for me. Not nearly as good a showing as the last time we had this wine. Likely closing down.

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  • 2003 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape 86 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    Some slight VA on the nose, which carried over into the palate for me. Disjointed all over the place. This seems to have potential, but is a mess of a wine right now, and it is a risky bet IMO

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  • 2003 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau 88 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    Very primary and grapey. A bit of a roasted pruney element to it. Very tannic and a bit hot- Despite all of that, I did guess it was the VT (after my first swing and miss in flight one) and I think it has enough balance to become a good, but probably not a great VT down the road. Clearly not the early drinker that the 98 was before it shut down.

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  • 2003 Domaine Bois de Boursan Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée des Félix 84 Points

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    This turned out to be a bit of a controverial wine. I didn't like it much at all. Seemed light on the palate and a bit hollow even. Crazy tannic and slightly hot. Others really liked this one. Perhaps just too closed for me to see the potential, but I couldn't recommend this to anyone.

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Flight 3 - Perenial All-Stars (3 Notes)

Glad I bought some Beau despite the mediocre reviews. Damn shame about the Pegau.

Closing

We finished with a fantastic 2002 Weinbach SGN and a mediocre 2003 La Tour Blanche. - by this time I gave up trying to document anything.

I was not the biggest fan of 2003 CdP in general- and in terms of an overall vintage characterization I think that hasn't changed- A lot seem out of whack and overly tannic to me and quite often lack charm. However there are definitely some nice wines to be had and some good values in the mix as well. Thanks again to Tracy for putting this together.

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