CDP Cuvee du Papet, Clos du Mont Olivet 2020

The 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape La Cuvée Du Papet is made in a more structured, age-worthy style and is 90% Grenache and 5% each Syrah and Mourvedre. Its slightly darker ruby color is followed by a gorgeous perfume of savory red and black fruits, ground pepper, garrigue, and chalky minerality. These all carry over to the palate, where the wine is full-bodied, has a dense, powerful mid-palate, lots of ripe tannins, and a great, great finish. It needs to be hidden for 4-5 years and will evolve beautifully over the following two decades. I suspect it will be one of the longest-lived wines in the vintage.

A concentrated, tense and saline wine, powerful but without excessive alcohol. Lovely fresh blackberry and blackcurrant fruit and huge grip and presence. Will take time to come round, and will always be quite potent in alcohol, but this has real depth and length. Clearly some serious terroir. Great clarity and intensity, serious freshness and great focus. Part destemmed, fermented in concrete, no new oak.