Community Tasting Note

• watcheslover Likes this wine: 96 points

  July 21, 2022 - The best ever made here just behind the future legendary 2016, it will be immortal, buy it when you're young and wait 30 to 50 years!!! LOL

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4 Comments

• KPB commented:

  8/6/22, 12:50 PM - By LOL do you mean that if people follow your advice, they will completely miss the window, and that this would be funny? I knew and tasted with Henri Bonneau, and he would have been sad to see his wines go to waste that way.
  
  The wine is drinking quite well now, although I easily see it having a 15-18 year lifetime (counting from the vintage, not from today). But if you lay this down for 30 to 50 years, you will open it and find vinegar, or worse.
  
  In fact assuming that Chateauneuf du Pape can age like Cabernet is a misunderstanding, although surprisingly common! Different grapes have different levels of acidity and tannins and hence different aging profiles.
  
  Bonneau’s CDP was always centered around grenache with random other grapes tossed in, whatever grows on that parcel — Henri himself said nobody knows (and that he didn’t care). This is not a blend that yields a backwards ultra tannic, high acidity Cabernet of the kind you need to age for 35 years before tasting your first bottle. A thing just is what it is. And this is a wine to drink now and for the next few years!

• watcheslover commented:

  8/6/22, 10:32 PM - Hello KPB, sorry for this confusing LOL. It was more aimed at people like me who are over 60 and may not fully enjoy this wine when it is perfect to drink. My grandmother started drinking wine mixed with water and apple juice when she turned 70. And for us, what will happen?
  Apart from that, thank you for this reminder of the 13 grape varieties of Chateauneuf and the problems inherent in each of them. It's quite correct in theory but in practice there are wines everywhere that defy time and accepted ideas. Living near Avignon and CNDP, I know their wines perfectly and I also shared a few bottles with Henri Bonneau. He made me taste a bottle of 1955 (it must have been in 2010-2011) which almost brought tears to my eyes. Of course with a standard professional vision, one could have said that the wine had passed its optimum date and that it was no longer to marry with food. It was simply "something else" to taste like an old port between good friends. And the fabulous moment of spiritual pleasure was in any case worth as much as the physical pleasure of a younger wine. But to come back to this discussion. In February I drank a Celestins 1989 (33 years old) which was perfect. Of course, few vintages can be kept for so long without deterioration in quality, but sincerely, I believe that the 2015 and especially the 2016 will be at their peak in 20-25 years. Save a bottle until then, you'll be surprised. Unless you're as old as me.LOL

• watcheslover commented:

  8/6/22, 10:42 PM - And if you like fabulous CNDP (I saw your comment for Rayas 2007 which is really fabulous) try the Clos des Papes 2019 or the Gourt de Mautens (ex-Rasteau) 2016. You are likely to be very happy.

• KPB commented:

  8/7/22, 2:39 AM - Yes, I enjoy both producers! A great loss to the wine world that Henri passed away!

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