Clos des Papes Vertical
Tribeca Grill, NYC
Tasted April 23, 2008 by JOsgood with 820 views
Introduction
This was my first off-line with the die hards of the erobertparker.com message boards. Coming into the event I had only tasted the 1995 and 2001 vintages of Clos des Papes so I was pretty excited about tasting more of these legendary CDPs. The evening was expertly planned by Brad Coelho who was thirsting for more CDP after an amazing two week trip to the Rhone. The highly professional sommelier and staff at Tribeca Grill worked tirelessly to change out our glasses and pour what seemed like a never ending procession of amazing wines. Special thanks to John Junguenet for his in-depth insight into the amazing domaine of Clos des Papes and answering a ton of questions.
Flight 1 (1 note)
White
1998 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
We started the night with this great white. Lean, racy, acidic with a ton of minerality. Long finish. If if tasted this blind I would have guessed it was a Chablis.
Flight 2 (1 note)
Red
1969 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Purchased off the wine list by the group. This wine was recently acquired at auction. Rusty red in color with a deep and powerful nose. Wonderful mid palate but the finish was too abrupt. Tons of acidity and notes of red fruit and truffles. If I had this blind I might have guessed an older Burgundy. So much fun to drink this wine. Mine didn't last long but others let it sit and it quickly died with air. What a treat to taste this.
Flight 3 (1 note)
Flight 4 (1 note)
Flight 5 (1 note)
Flight 6 (1 note)
Red
1999 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Drank from magnum. Very ripe and rich. What a contrast to the more elegant 1969 and 1989. Very big wine with a ton of cherry coming through and some alcohol. Initially this was pretty tight but with air this kept getting better and better.
Flight 7 (1 note)
Red
1989 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Purchased off the list by the group. Extremely elegant wine that could pass as a Burgundy. So fresh tasting, you would never believe this is almost 20 years old. Just pure clean red fruit here with a velvet finish.
Flight 8 (1 note)
Flight 9 (1 note)
Red
1998 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Wow! Wow! Wow! So elegant, clean and pure tasting. Gorgeous red fruit, earth and spice with an incredible long and polished finish. The group loved it and this was the consensus WOTN. This was easily my favorite wine of the night.
Flight 10 (1 note)
Flight 11 (1 note)
Red
2003 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Very big with tons of fruit upfront. Huge nose. Lush in the mouth. Great bottle although I prefer the more elegant traditional vintages.
Flight 12 (1 note)
Red
2005 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Sappy, spicy with gorgeous fruit. Very young and tight with tons of tannin. This one needs some serious time in the bottle to show its potential which is enormous. 95+ and I can see this being close to perfect at its apex.
Flight 13 (1 note)
Red
2001 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Gobs of ripe fruit, very big wine with tons of elegance. Iron fist in a velvet glove. I had the pleasure of drinking this wine four times now and it has impressed me each time. With time I think this can get a little bit better.
Flight 14 (1 note)
Red
2004 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Very promising young wine. I was getting tea leaves and menthol on this. Balanced with a good bite. Needs more time to strut its stuff.
Closing
As you can see the wines were just incredible. We sat down at 7pm and didn't leave until 11:30pm. I learned so much about the estate and the wines. I also had a blast talking to everyone at the table. The service we received at Tribeca Grill was really nice and the food was pretty good. Looking forward to my next off-line now but this one will be really hard to top!
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