Roger Sabon Chateauneuf de Pape cuvee prestige 2000 (review)
90 points.
From Northern Rhone, France. 14.5%
An odd Chateauneuf de Pape, lightish in colour. Gloriously ripe, sweet, opulent with soft acids and intruiging spicy herb flavours mixed in with sun ripe grapes. A hedonistic wine. Perhaps it will age well, but why wait ?
Parker raved about it (92 points) "Full bodied, sexy, concentrated, and loaded with the essence of Provence... smells like liqueur of black pepper intermixed with lavender, game, and black fruits. It tastes so much like Provence that one almost expects some of their miniature figurines (santons) to jump out of the glass. Ripe, layered, and spicy, with soaring aromatics, this fleshy, chewy 2000 is undoubtedly hiding some serious tannin. Drink now to 2016."
Nice description except that it isn't chewy, unless you think soft ripe fruits are chewy, and if it is hiding serious tannin it is doing the hiding very well.
PS some bottles have been corked, some show some cork influence - another reason not to age it.
posted by Byron Sharp @ 12:56 PM
2 Comments:
Having enjoyed this wine with Byron (and Anne and Janet), I can vouch for its unusual flavours for the region. I agree that the tannins were very light signalling a drink now wine. The wine really is unusual and I wonder what grape varieties were in it, because it does not have the typcial Grenache and Shiraz fruit or tannin structure. Perhaps a really well grown Carignane? One of the techniques for this variety is carbonic maceration, which produces unusual fruit flavours and very low tannins.
haven't had the 2000 vintage, but am drinking the 2003 right now, and this wine is not light, whatsoever. Lots of tannins here, well hid by its gorgeous velvet fruit, but the tannins are definately there. Delicious, and probably would be a better wine with more age, but I couldn't resist.
Post a Comment
<< Home