Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Château de Beaucastel Blanc, Perrin - Château de Beaucastel 2007

The 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape blanc is even better. Meriting the same rating as I gave it last year, it is a delicious, beautifully textured, light gold-colored white revealing plenty of white peach, apricot, nectarine, and honeysuckle notes as well as a distinctive florality and minerality. More honeyed and fuller-bodied than its 2008 counterpart, it should drink beautifully for 7-8 years, then go into an oxidative state. It is somewhat of a gamble as to what will happen thereafter. Beaucastel's limited production luxury cuvee first produced in 1986 is their 100% Roussanne Vieilles Vignes offering. Fifty percent is barrel-fermented in one-year-old barrels, but no new oak is utilized.

The 2007 Châteauneuf du Pape tastes like a prodigious Montrachet, with that goût du petrol like character that recalls earth and truffles. Those characteristics are interwoven with marmalade, honeysuckle, apricot and peach fruit along with extroadinary precision and depth that last well past a minute. This great, great effort is the most distinctive white wine of Southern France. It is difficult to find a better Châteauneuf du Pape than Beaucastle. Much like their reds, their whites are made in a style that is atypical for the appellation. It is put through full malolactic, and one third is barrel fermented, then blended with two thirds that is blended in tank. Extroadinarily rich and honeyed it is ideal for drinking with intensely flavoured culinary dishes.