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Wineflock - 'Reserve' Chateauneuf du Papes
Bob and Ann's
Tasted March 8, 2007 by winefool with 846 views
Introduction
The flock met on Thursday night at Bob and Ann's to taste through a series of special bottling or 'reserve'-level CdP. Our themes usually prescribe a fairly narrow vintage range, but this one was wide open. The result was an unusually interesting, but also challenging, tasting that allowed us to compare mature examples with young turks. Overall the wines showed very well and everyone agreed that the scoring was unusually tight (no clunkers, but no runaway's either). I thought is was a very high quality well made group of wines, but for the most part missed the real wow factor I was hoping to find. Lots of buzz about CdP lately, but I think I'll focus my buying on more mature examples at auction over the bevy of high-scoring new releases.
All wines blind as usual.
Flight 1 - Welcome Wines (2 notes)
Red
1989 Domaine Burle Gigondas Les Pallieroudas
87 points
Medium crimson color. Lovely briar slightly sour red fruit nose. A bit tight and acidic on the palate. A bit angular, though it smoothed out some with time.
Red
1998 Domaine de l'Hortus Pic St. Loup Grande Cuvée
91 points
Medium cherry red color. Rich ripe tight nose with some lifting acidity. Serious tight concentrated red/black fruit on the palate. More concentrated that it appeared based on color. Spicy black fruit finish with firm tannins.
Flight 2 - Main CdP tasting (8 notes)
Red
1998 Charles Melton Nine Popes
93 points
Group #5, My #4 (Ringer) - Full red color. Bright red fruit nose with hints of bubblegum, mint, and licorice. Big red spicy fruit with sweet briar notes and a round coffee finish. Very nice.
Red
1989 Domaine de la Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
94 points
Group #9, My #4 - Cloudy crimson garnet color. Lovely sweet red cherry - medium almost burg-like nose. Dripping red fruit, seeming focus on grenache. Sweet, round, really nice mature CdP.
Red
2001 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul
92 points
Group #6, My #7 - Full red/purple color. medium candied red dustry fruit nose with notes of pencil lead and cocoa. Big tight tannic red frui with spicy mid palate and long acidic finish. Needs time.
Red
2001 Domaine de Beaurenard (Paul Coulon et Fils) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Boisrenard
93 points
Group #4, My #6 - two bottles of this showed up so this is a blended note with emphasis on my higher rated (by one point) note. Opaque deep purple/red color. Distinctive forward perfumed briar purple fruit nose with some dusty notes. Searing black fruit on the palate with coffee, pepper, tannin, and some acidity. Finishes forever. This is a huge wine that really needs time to come together and shine - I think it will be great.
Red
2000 Domaine de Beaurenard (Paul Coulon et Fils) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Boisrenard
94 points
Group #3, My #2 - Opaque black/purple color. Full candied purple fruit with perfume notes again (apparently a characteristic of this wine as it persists across vintages). Huge rich black fruit with great concentration, layers, hints of sweet, and a long coffee finish. Like the 2001, big burly wine, but this one is giving up considerably more IHMO.
Red
1998 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois
93 points
Group #1, My #3 - Opaque black/red color. Full black fruit nose with grilled steak notes and hints of acidity. Smooth silky rich black fruit and berry on the palate with a great mid-palate and a long spicy round finish.
Red
1989 Les Cailloux (Lucien et André Brunel) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Centenaire
90 points
Group #7, My #9 - Tough to pick a #9 wine here because they were good across the lineup! Clear ruby garnet color. Medium canned red fruit nose with leather and rose petal hints. Full tight black fruit with some licorice and spice. Even for an 89, this wine was still wound up pretty tight and will likely improve for another 5-10 years.
Red
1990 Les Cailloux (Lucien et André Brunel) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Centenaire
95 points
Group #2, My #1 - Full crimson/garnet color. Killer nose of deep rich coffee red fruit, briar, and secondary notes. Huge tannic black fruit with pepper notes and hints of sweetness. Long acidic tannic finish. I like this more and more as I savoured it over the course of the evening. A great wine drinking at or near it's peak.
Flight 3 - Dessert Wines (3 notes)
White - Sweet/Dessert
1998 Joseph Phelps Eisrébe
90 points
Medium gold color. Odd medicinal nose with ester notes. Full light bodied, but with rich honeyed apple. Better on the palate than nose.
White - Sweet/Dessert
1994 Altesino Vin Santo d'Altesi
87 points
Full caramel color. Nutty acetone sherry nose. Electric almond caramel toffee with acidic, slightly odd finish.
White - Sweet/Dessert
1990 Giuseppe Quintarelli Amabile del Cerè Veneto IGT
93 points
Probably a little lost at the end of the evening which is a shame. Full deep caramel color. Somewhat sherry oxidative notes on the nose. Nutty caramel almond on the palate - great focus and precision. Clear sweetness, but more subdued than most dessert wines. Nice.