2019 Domaine la Barroche Châteauneuf-du-Pape Pure Rouge

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 98 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View MAXIMUM SATISFACTION's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/12/2022 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote: 96 Points

  Hard to top Cellardrinker’s note below but here goes. This is definitely denser, darker and more extracted than Rayas despite its proximity. That said it has an elegance to it that most of Châteauneuf lacks (plus no pruned notes). Polished but not opulent with some fine grained tannins that need time to resolve.
  
  Juicy red fruit, vanilla, stem, scorched earth and mineral. Again, this needs time in bottle to gain more depth but surprised by how approachable it is now.

  3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View cellardrinker's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/25/2022 - cellardrinker wrote: 99 Points

  Maybe the best Pure I have ever tasted with 2016 and 2010.
  
  2019 was a crazy year in CDP. I visited the property first at the end of March and the weather was unusually cool. Even until early June, the temperatures were well below normal in the low 50s with people in town still heating their homes. Then within two weeks, France was hit by a historic heat wave. When I stopped by the winery at the very end of June temperatures reached in excess of 110 F! Julien Barrot was worried about heat stress with some of the leaves on vines near the winery wilting. Luckily, the extreme heat abated while the weather remained mostly dry. La Barroche old vines do not suffer from much hydric stress as they often reach 30 feet deep to the water table. I returned in early September a and few rain showers had helped and the grapes were maturing beautifully. The Pure plot is always the last to be harvested in early October. The grenache had weathered the heat stress the best especially the centenarian vines high on the plateau near Rayas where the Pure comes from. Julien was already convinced it was going to be a great year.
  
  I finally tasted the epic 2019 vintage at the property at the end of October 2021 when I was able to travel to France again, post COVID. Yield was tiny comparable to that in 2010 and much lower than 2016. 2018 was a very tough year so it was a relief for Julien to have what looked like an excellent vintage on his hands. The Cuvee Pure comes a single vineyard in a small northfacing plot with mostly sandy soils, a stone throw from Rayas near the top of the CDP Appellation. These north facing vineyards will always do better in hot years than the traditional south facing vineyards from la Crau, a situation more and more frequent with global warming.
  
  The Cuvee Pure color is signficantly lighter than Julien's other cuvees and lighter than most other CDPs except for Rayas. You could nearly mistake for a pinot at first glance. It is not from lack of concentration, but from the fact it comes from 100% grenache which is thin skinned. Many CDPs are darker in color from the addition of the thicker skinned syrah and mourvedre. The Pure from 100% very old vine grenache is the absolute essence of old vine grenache which can only be grown gobelet style in CDP, unlike other Rhone appellations where it is often trellised. Some the vines easily exceed six feet in height. Yield per vine for the Pure is minuscule, typically less than a bottle equivalent per vine! Julien does not trim the Pure vines as aggressively as his neighbor Emmanuel Reynaud at Rayas. He also harvests the Pure plot late but not as insanely late as Rayas. The Pure plot was harvested at the very end of September benefiting from some small amount of rain in mid-September. By waiting that long, the grapes benefit from the big difference betwen the warm daytime and cool night temperatures and can reach perfect maturity. The berries from the vinyeard are nearly always tiny, with a high skin to juice content. Rayas next door only finished harvesting his vines a full month later.
  The nose of the 2019 Pure is very Burgundy like, delicate and floral with very little of the spice you find in GSM blends. The palate is extremely smooth for such a young wine, drinkable now but can easily wait a decade or more. My 2010s are still babies!. Tannins are present but very soft from use of whole clusters. It was one of these years where stems were used giving some grip and sweetness. Alcohol was barely discernible even though the Pure still packs a punch at over 15 degrees. Unlike the stems from syrah and mourvedre which are very bitter, stems from ripe grenache are delicious and their use helps moderate the alcohol. The length of the wine was astounding lingering for 30 seconds or more. By the time I left, Julien and I nearly finished a bottle. There is a term sometimes used for such old vine grenache. Orgasmic!
  By hook or by crook try to snag a bottle and share it with your signficant other. You will see what I mean! I only gave it a 99+ because it will still improve with some age.

  10 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Jeff Leve's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/9/2022 - Jeff Leve wrote: 99 Points

  This is mind-blowing from the initial sniff and sip and it only gets better from there with its endless waves of black, and red cherries, kirsch, black raspberries, thyme, flowers, herbs and spices. As good as that is, it is the elegant, silky, refined, purity of fruit on the palate that steals the show! The wine is elegantly styled with refined, yet supple textures and a sweet and spicy, kirsch finish. This wine is made from 100% Grenache, hence the name Pure. Drink from 2025 - 2040

  4 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.