2015 Clos Saint Jean Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Community Tasting Notes (30) Avg Score: 90.9 points

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  10/21/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Welcome back, children! It is the triumphant return of the fish report with a beat and my least hated, most favourite fish is ...
  
  Forgive me for borrowing from the Roger Record, 1987's 'Radio KAOS' but it is a great record, far better than the flaccid effort from Fat Dave and Nic the Architect, who had lost his capacities so badly that another drummer had to be used on record and for the early parts of the tour, itself a tour de force in marketing over music.
  
  The connection with this wine, or wine of any kind?
  
  Well, this vintage of C St J provokes mixed emotions for me, somewhat like the fish hating reporter who names his 'least hated, most favourite fish...' And for all that my hackles rose when my excitement at a new Pink Floyd record was met by the marketing company version of a Pink Floyd sound minus any substance at all, I do still kind of like that sound.
  
  This wine is under that creaking, Medieval closure known as cork. A closure so unreliable and inherently f*^%ed that it's saving argument is that there is a romance to the cork. The same romance that there is to having sex with a pox ridden prostitute and thinking 'well, I might get lucky and come out of this with an uninfected knob'. At any rate, in this case the bottle has navigated the Cilla of cork taint and the Charybdis of excessive oxidation; whether you are so lucky is a matter of chance.
  
  The colour is dense, still more about primary purples and deep reds than any brick or brown.
  
  A word of warning - this wine is far, far better on day 2 than day 1. How better? There is real integration of flavours and structure on day 2 and you get a very pleasing experience in terms of mouthfeel. The tannins seem far more sandy than grainy. On day 1 the tannins messed with my head - not aggressive but one moment I am thinking 'wood tannins to the maximum', then I am thinking 'no, you silly c*5t, those are sandy tannins; can you really not tell the difference?'.
  
  The length and intensity are exemplary - whether on day 1 or day 2.
  
  This maker has a history going back to early in the last century, but it rose to fame off the back of an orgasmic Parker review of the 2003 vintage. This brings me to one of my points of mixed feelings. Parker is an easy target these days. I regard him as doing a lot of damage to French wines by encouraging wines that were heavily extracted, over oaked and with over-ripe fruit, as befits a smoker. On the other hand, he did give a somewhat moribund industry a real dildo up the Arschloch.
  
  This wine is a Parker wine. The label says 16% ABV and indeed it does have all the delicacy of a Jagdtiger. Big does not begin to describe it. On day 1 I also found it oaky - mocha and some vanilla notes. Now this is a CdP that does use oak - although no new oak for the Grenache, which makes up about 75% of the blend. However, the Shiraz and Mourvèdre do get new oak and you don't need a lot to notice it. On day 2 the oak is still there but it sits in the pocket and it is the fruit that makes the first charge, a bit like Fat Dave's guitar on 'A New Machine Part 1' and even his vocal on that track 'I have always been here...' It is just that on day 1 it was hard to notice.
  
  On day 1 and 2 the fruit is a mix of the caricature and the genuine; again like 'A Momentary Lapse of (T)reason'. There are prune, baked fruit notes but also some surprising blue fruits and attractive dark berries. Also, the whole package is finished by some surprisingly fresh acid.
  
  Overall, on day 1 this was more about the things I hate, like Fat Dave and his accountant mind, but on day 2 it was about the things I like, presumably the bits of Dave that survived his middle age spread and pompous English sensibilities - those moments of genuine artistry that survived.
  
  It also has to be said that you get a lot of CdP for your coin here. My score relates to the objective elements - if you love the style, you will go higher, if you hate the style, you might go lower and if you are like me and try to take each wine on its merits you will probably fall around this mark. On day 2 this is fat but beautiful. And I do love the tannins. Yet, I do tend to pine more for the leaner stuff, the cranky, angular Roger, whom I think of as being un-Parkerised Bordeaux.
  

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  9/2/2023 - Risky Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Dark berry, slightly tart, needed to open for about 30 minutes. Medium texture.

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  5/8/2023 - Superfly008 wrote: 80 Points

  Medium color with brick red color. Light viscosity. Strong astringent nose but light fruit flavors. Softened taste and ready to drink. Smooth taste and not strong fruit flavors. I’d call it average and below expectations for a magnum gift.

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  1/7/2023 - NJG-323879 Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Pnp. Very hot from the outset, but smoothed out a bit after some time in the glass. Showing great potential, and I will wait a few years before visiting this wine again.

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  12/26/2022 - WilD wrote: 92 Points

  Nice C9dP. Typical garique flavours. Drinking very well now.

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