2006 Clos Saint Jean Chateauneauf du Pape Vieilles Vignes

I had an awesome evening recently with my 2 friends at Palate Wine bar.  Will write about it soon but want to write about the wine that we had which was pretty awesome.  2006 Clos Saint Jean Chateauneauf du Pape Vieilles Vignes.  The wine was very rich with lots of enticing fig sauce, heavy raspberry tones, melted licorice and boysenberry fruit notes. Sweet spice notes linger in the mouth for a long time and it has a rounded finish.

Robert Parker says, “Under the inspired winemaking talent of Rhone oenologist Philippe Cambie in addition to proprietor Vincent Maurel, 2003 marked a breakthrough vintage for Clos Saint-Jean, and that has been followed by some of the finest wines of 2004 and blockbusters again in 2005. This 120-acre estate possesses some of the best old vine parcels of the appellation and has always had enormous potential, but the style of aging the wines in foudres for 5-6 years or longer resulted in too many wines that were dried out and lacked freshness. That has all changed under Cambie’s inspired winemaking, which keeps the Grenache in large foudres or demi-muids, and then ages the Syrah and Mourvedre components in smaller barrels. Yields, which were already low, have been lowered even further, and the wine is now bottled with neither fining nor filtration. If you haven’t caught on to the exquisite quality of Clos Saint-Jean’s Chateauneuf du Papes, now is the time. Just a reminder – their 2003s were some of the great wines of that irregular vintage in Chateauneuf du Pape, and they can still be found in the marketplace. These wines still remain somewhat underpriced vis-a-vis their quality, and a real bargain is the regular cuvee of Chateauneuf du Pape, normally a blend of 70-75% Grenache all aged in tank or large foudres and the rest Syrah, Mourvedre, and Cinsault.”

Rating
“The 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes’ darkopaque color is accompanied by a gorgeous nose of incense, licorice, spice box, creme de cassis, cherries, and smoked meats. Notions of soy and fig are also apparent in this full-bodied, concentrated, sexy wine. Enjoy it over the next 12-15+ years.”-Robert Parker 93 Points

This entry was posted on 20. June 2009 at 18:24 and is filed under $$$, ****, Wine, Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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