2019 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc

Community Tasting Notes (2) Median Score: 91 points

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  11/25/2021 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 90 Points

  I am rating this as excellent on the Cellar Tracker scale. The wine is a roughly equal blend of the charming Roussanne and the rather more difficult Clairette Blanche (the latter used in Dry Vermouth).
  
  Colour is pale white gold, nice brightness.
  
  Nose is pleasing, speaking to me of Roussanne. I get some ripe pear and a note of herbs - it is similar to Chamomile in the garden.
  
  Palate is very attractive with very good length and intensity. At one level this is grapey and feels like a really enjoyable picnic white but there is actually rather more to it than that. I get a slightly chalky, mineral texture, more than the tannins of which another reviewer wrote, but this may be different ways of expressing the textural element, which works very well on its own (to give interest above a picnic wine), but is splendid with cheese and I could imagine it working really well with chicken salads. There is a flavour element reminiscent of Dry Vermouth here and it works. Nice clean acid to finish, though this does not feel an especially acidic wine and that makes sense for Clairette Blanche is not an acidic grape.
  
  I don't drink a lot of Rhone whites, so forgive the naivete of the tasting note. I really enjoyed this. I am not convinced by the dollars v stiffies equation, but taken on its own it is a really pleasurable drinking experience. It is a high quality Rhone white.
  
  For my particular tastes, for this money I can get German GG Rieslings, the really superb whites of Luis Seabra and decent premier cru Chablis, all of which I find more to my tastes. However, another drinker with different tastes could legitimately find this every bit as attractive as the wines I prefer. I think that is an important qualification for my comments. This is, without doubt, really high quality white wine.

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  10/29/2020 - JonnyG Likes this wine: 91 Points

  As interesting a young Rhone white as I can remember, with the Clairette providing some real density and depth of flavor which balanced the Roussanne component very nicely. This is a structured white in many ways, too (despite the low acidity), with some evident tannins. Very interesting.

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