1993 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Community Tasting Notes (83) Avg Score: 89.9 points

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  3/18/2024 - La Sprezzatura wrote: 91 Points

  Beaucastel Tasting Wunderbrunnen Opfikon
  
  general remarks:
  the wines are in general more on the elegant side. red berric. high acidity. almost no wood (they only use 5000+ liters „foudres“) intermixed with some spices and flowery aromas. especially the older vintages gave me some "burgundy vibes". there was some bottle variation (some oxidative bottles), especially with some warmer and better rated vintages such as 1995 and 1999…
  the younger the wines got the more similar they became and were hard to distinguish. also hard to tell where the younger vintages will end up in future. highlights were 1991 and 1996 (both 94 points).
  
  in the cellar they use as low intervention as possible. every grape gets fermented on its own. they choose oxidative or reductive ageing for each grape separately according to the characteristics of the grape.
  the chateau is owned and ran by the family perrin (7 ppl).
  
  Tasting note 1993:
  charming and elegant on the nose, not super intense but there are some licorice and some red fruits. again here sous-bois, some sawdust, licorice.
  on the palate more tannins than the 1991 but still on the elegant and smooth side.

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  2/26/2024 - AlphaMikeFoxtrot Likes this wine: 90 Points

  DC Dinners and Tastings; 2/24/2024-2/26/2024 (Washington, DC): I thought this would be DoA, and was pleasantly surprised. Seriously, would even 2003 CdPs still be alive today?
  
  Macerated red cherries, macerated raspberries, leather, cumin, hungarian paprika and button mushrooms on the nose. Medium + intensity of aromas. Palate shows even more fruit, adding stewed red currants and dried tarragon but is otherwise pretty consistent with the aromas. Medium + intensity of flavors.
  
  Medium + body with medium - acid and low tannin. Obviously drink now, if not five years ago, but this impressed nontheless. Worked well with roasted squab. I would love to pair a tertiary wine like this with a really spicy red meat dish (like Birria) and see if it works.

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  11/23/2023 - chatters wrote:

  Supper at Noi (Noi Restaurant, Petersham): Surprisingly this showed a lot more lively than my earlier tastings; a sweet black fruited core was surrounded by a little dried herbs, lavender, a touch of greenness, earth and leather, textured burr provided a touch of structure on the palate and it was pleasingly fresh. Lovely

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  10/27/2023 - chrisbiss Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Best wine I've ever had. Drunk for fiancée's 30th. No decanting or breathing.
  
  Served with fillet steak with home made chimmichuri, carrots roasted with parmesan and parsley, and some home made oven chips roasted in grapenut oil.
  
  We didn't decant or let it breathe in any way, just opened the bottle and poured just before I served food and then drank it over the course of an hour. Initially it was quite light and mellow, smooth tannins and next to no acidity with some flavours of stone and cherry. It was lovely but I worried that it was going to be obliterated by the flavours in the meal.
  
  I was worrying about nothing. It complimented the steak and the very parsley and red chilli-forward chimichurri beautifully, and over the course of the bottle it opened up into something really special. It started to develop some musk and leather on the nose that also carried into the palette, along with some peppery spice and a slight tinge of olive. The tail got longer as it opened up, with some notes of roasted meat that worked perfectly with the meal. We also got a bit of red fruit and raspberry alongside the cherry, with a hint of oak coming out towards the end.
  
  This was definitely one of the best bottles I've had to date and I'm a bit gutted we drank it so quickly, but the combination of mellow tannins and very low acidity meant that it was a very easy drink and it disappeared before me knew it. Considering 1993 isn't known as a particularly good year my expectations were low (and I was obviously anxious about the quality of such an old wine, too) but this absolutely blew me away and I wish I had a second bottle of it. Absolutely stunning.

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  5/1/2023 - Loathesome Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Bearing in mind the age and the vintage this was a very pleasant surprise. Fully mature but at no point tailing off. There was plenty of sweet fruit and a good weight. The only down side was a lack of complexity and a feeling of it being a two dimensional wine only. It highlights why Beaucastel is the best CNP in terms of ageing potential.

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