2015 Domaine Jean Royer Le Petit Roy

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Super-Fine, Well-Priced Reoffers, 9/20/2017

  (Jean Royer Le Petit Roy) Hello friends. Reoffers today on a quartet of super-fine, well-priced reds: Over the last five years, Kevin White has moved from a buzzy, rising star of Washington to one of the truly tested and consistently high-quality producers of our state. He makes ridiculously fine wines at prices that are pretty unusual. In our original offer of the two Kevin White wines listed below, we mentioned that Sean Sullivan would be giving them matching 93 point reviews in the September issue of Wine Enthusiast. Well, September is here, and so are these glowing reviews. On top of the new reviews, both En Hommage and La Fraternité have been included in Seattle Met’s annual Best of Washington Wine feature. We’ve included all of the new press below.A quick reminder about the 2015 vintage in Europe: It is out of this world. Back in January we offered our first 2015 Europe collection with slight caution to a response of wild and rampant excitement. Now, more than half a year later, we can safely say that 2015 is worth the hype. Bottle after bottle has bowled our team over with remarkably true regional expression from Burgundy to Tuscany, and everywhere in between. (For more info, see Decanter’s article: Europe’s 2015 wine harvest: On the verge of greatness?). Originally offered June 30th, 2017, this is our most popular import offer of the year to date, and a steady reorder target since that June blast. Excerpts from the original offer: [this wine] is run-don’t-walk territory. I don’t toss around the term “Baby Chateauneuf” lightly. Jean Royer is himself a Chateauneuf-du-Pape producer. Since 1985, he has been crafting well-regarded, well-reviewed CdPs in more of an old-school style than the newer, blowsier CdPs currently in vogue. Petit Roy is a blend of declassified barrels of Royer Chateauneuf, along with concrete tank-aged parcels from his vines just outside the boundary of the AOC. It’s about as close to CdP as you can get without being allowed to put it on the label. This blend of Grenache (mostly), Syrah (some), and Mourvedre and Alicante (dollops) clocks in at 14.5% listed alc and begins with a nose that puts you in the southern Rhone immediately: brambly raspberry, loads of dust and dried garrigue, and appealing hot-rock minerality. In the mouth, this conveys wonderful richness and intensity without ever putting on too much weight. It has something to offer both wine-drinking crowds: outright pleasure for the don’t-think-too-much chuggers, and sneaky complexity for the contemplative types. I would love to slip this into a blind flight of $30-$50 Chateauneuf-du-Pape and watch it dazzle. For ribs on the grill this summer; for roasts and braises when the weather turns cold; for a killer mid-week house red that will turn heads, this is a go-to bottle.

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Baby Chateauneuf, 6/30/2017

  (Jean Royer Le Petit Roy) Hello friends. We’ve already offered a number of terrific wines from the outrageous 2015 vintage in Europe, but today’s may wind up as our finest value of the year; a baby Chateauneuf-du-Pape for a dozen dollars: A quick reminder about the 2015 vintage in Europe: It is out of this world. Back in January we offered our first 2015 Europe collection with slight caution to a response of wild and rampant excitement. Now, more than half a year later, we can safely say that 2015 is worth the hype. Bottle after bottle has bowled our team over with remarkably true regional expression from Burgundy to Tuscany, and everywhere in between. (For more info, see Decanter’s article: Europe’s 2015 wine harvest: On the verge of greatness?). Originally offered June 30th, 2017, this is our most popular import offer of the year to date, and a steady reorder target since that June blast. Excerpts from the original offer: [this wine] is run-don’t-walk territory. I don’t toss around the term “Baby Chateauneuf” lightly. Jean Royer is himself a Chateauneuf-du-Pape producer. Since 1985, he has been crafting well-regarded, well-reviewed CdPs in more of an old-school style than the newer, blowsier CdPs currently in vogue. Petit Roy is a blend of declassified barrels of Royer Chateauneuf, along with concrete tank-aged parcels from his vines just outside the boundary of the AOC. It’s about as close to CdP as you can get without being allowed to put it on the label. This blend of Grenache (mostly), Syrah (some), and Mourvedre and Alicante (dollops) clocks in at 14.5% listed alc and begins with a nose that puts you in the southern Rhone immediately: brambly raspberry, loads of dust and dried garrigue, and appealing hot-rock minerality. In the mouth, this conveys wonderful richness and intensity without ever putting on too much weight. It has something to offer both wine-drinking crowds: outright pleasure for the don’t-think-too-much chuggers, and sneaky complexity for the contemplative types. I would love to slip this into a blind flight of $30-$50 Chateauneuf-du-Pape and watch it dazzle. For ribs on the grill this summer; for roasts and braises when the weather turns cold; for a killer mid-week house red that will turn heads, this is a go-to bottle.