Annual Holiday CDP Tasting: Featuring 2000 and 2001 Vintages

This was the annual holiday CDP tasting at the ECC. The event was coordinated with the visits of Brian and Ashley back from across the pond and Johnny's brother Joe. The event was a rousing success thanks to the stellar group of wines, excellent food, and equally important, the wonderful friends and conversations of a bunch of serious wine geeks. Thanks to everyone for making this an outstanding event!!

• 2010 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Réservée 94 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Medium gold color. Popped and poured. Drank several glasses over an hour plus. The nose is particularly bright and layered, with lots of tropical notes, very pure pear, hints of apples and citrus, white flowers, and later the minerality shows. The palate is very tangy, nice acid, lots of minerality, but the fruit still shines here, with pear more predominant. Very nice finish. This wine was quite enjoyable and one of my favorites of the night. Thanks so much to Joe for sharing. (#1000)

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2000 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée 92 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Dark red color. 2 hr decant prior. Drank 2 glasses over 3+hr. The nose is generally quite nice, smokey, meat, dry herbs, prominent indian spices initially, leaf tobacco,evolves to show florals and becomes a little woodsy, musty earth and bit of a stewy quality. I found the nose more impressive in the first hour and then seemed to show some fatigue. The palate was generally consistent, quite spicy, with dry herbs, some garrigue, muted red fruits, cedar. I thought the acid was rather prominent, and we got some of that stewy character over the evening. This was the best showing for this wine over the last several years. It does seem to be putting on some miles. In retrospect, this may need less decanting to maintain over a longer evening. Initially I scored this at 93, but the overall impression changed through the evening. 92+pts.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2000 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape 92 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Dark red color. The cork was pulled and the bottle was allowed to sit for 4 hours. Drank 2 glasses over 3+hr. The nose shows ripe fruits, stawberry, cherry, damp forest floor, garrigue, a bit of dill. The palate shows good body, rich flavors of red fruits which seem to become darker through the evening, prominent acid, lots of herbs, garrigue, nice finish. This does not show any danger of fading soon. This was pretty open for me all night and it improved from 91 to 92pts.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2000 Domaine de la Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Chaupin 94 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Dark red color. Decanted for 90 minutes, drank 2 glasses over 3+hr. The nose is gorgeous, showing black raspberry, florals, strawberry, red licorice, black cherry, vanilla, mushroom and earth. The palate is sexy and elegant showing bright fruits of raspberry and strawberry, florals, herbs, and earth. Wonderfully balanced, velvety tannis and very long. This wine has excellent depth and purity. Showing no signs of age, it has a long life ahead of it. This was my #2 WOTN and group #2 WOTN.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2001 Domaine Charvin Châteauneuf-du-Pape 95 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Dark red color. Decanted for 90 min prior. Drank 2 glasses over 3+hr. An uiltimately fantastic nose starts off a little earthy, very dusty, lots of underbrush, spices, damp forest floor, later showing an immense floral perfume of lavendar and violets, bright raspberry, almost a tad candied at first but not later, and black fruits. The palate is very consistent showing an elegantly layered wine with immense purity, wonderful balance and length. I really can't say too many good things about this wine. 95+pts, my WOTN and group WOTN.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2001 Domaine Paul Autard Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée La Cote Ronde 91 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Very dark red color. Cork was pulled and bottle was allowed to sit for 4 hours. Drank 2 glasses over 3+hr. The nose shows herb de Provence, meaty, earth, pepper, cedar and develops some nice lavendar notes, darker fruit, black cherry. The palate was full bodied, very peppery, oak, dark fruited, a little too tart, hints of alcohol show at times. Not quite as balanced as some of the others, but still a pretty good showing.

  Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No

• 2005 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée 93 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Very dark red color. This had been decanted for 3-4 hours. Drank 2 glasses over 3+hr. I really enjoyed the nose on this. As much as I liked the mature nose of the 2000, I found this more expressive overall and benefitting from a significant decant. The nose is quite aromatic, dusty, herbal, with a distinct note of cannibis that fades in and out(can't say I've ever written that in a note before, but it reminded me of being at a rock concert with the aromatics wafting about the arena), strawberries, black cherries. The palate is powerful and deep, bright fruit of dark berries, quite tart presently, herbs, and licorice. I did not find this firmly tannic as Brian did, not sure why, but I found it rather integrated for its age. There is little doubt that this will improve and evolve even more over the next 5+ years. 93+pts.

  Read 1 Comment / Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No

• 2006 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 93 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Very dark red color. Decanted 2 hr prior. Drank 2 glasses over 3=hr. Nose starts off quite closed, after considerable time in the glass I get glimpses of things to come: currently oak, cedar, raspberry, butterscotch, and spice, and just a little floral note. The palate is where this still shines. The palate is big and bold, full bodied and powerful, the aromatics rise and tickle the soft pallate, Provencal herbs, raspberry, black fruits, layers of fruit, round dry tannins, long finish. While this is nowhere near where it is going, IMHO, it is quite delicious now. This is one of my favorite producers, and I feel that I am underscoring this wine at 93+pts, but based on the overall current picture I think that's reasonable. When this wine finally opens I easily see a 95-96 score. when that happens is hard to say, but I suspect we are talking another 5+ years. I for one, will not be disappointed to revisit it yearly though!

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2001 Schloss Schönborn Rüdesheimer Berg Rottland Riesling Auslese 90 Points

  Germany, Rheingau

  Deep yellow color. Popped and poured one glass and drank over about 45 minutes. Nose is fairly aromatic and shows a lot of petrol, bright tropical fruits, ripe peach, honey, quince. The palate is rather sweet, a bit cloying to me, doesn't quite have the acid to match up, ripe tropical fruits, honey, peach, spices.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

All of the wines showed quite well tonight. Choosing the top wine was easy, after that, things got tougher. Voting was done on a 3-2-1 point system with 7 of us.
The 2001 Charvin was my and group WOTN with 15pts. (3+3+3+3+2+2+1=15pts)
The 2000 Janasse Chaupin was my and group #2 WOTN (3+2+2+1=8pts)
The 2010 Pegau Blanc was my and group #3 WOTN (0+2+2+1+1+1=7pts)
2000 Pegau Cuvee Reservee (3+2+0=5pts)
2005 Pegau Cuvee Reservee (3+0+1+1=5pts)
2006 Clos des Papes (0+2+0=2pts)