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CDP Vieilles Vignes, Domaine de la Charbonnière 2001

Tasting Notes

The 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Vieilles Vignes is a wine of precision, finesse, and elegance as opposed to pure power and intensity. Made from 80-year old Grenache (95% of the blend, with 5% Mourvedre), it emerges from a rock-strewn sector called Le Crau. Ninety percent is aged in neutral wood foudres and 10% in small casks. Like all the Charbonniere offerings, it is bottled unfiltered. Aromas of sweet and sour cherries, strawberries, pepper, spice box, and lavender are accompanied by a medium to full-bodied, elegant, pure wine with tremendous symmetry and balance. As I said last year, if the sexy, delicate French actress Sophie Marceau were a Chateauneuf du Pape, this would be it. Drink it over the next 14-15 years.

92
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (151), February 2004

Much more mature than the Hautes Brusquieres (although that was tasted from magnum), the 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Vieilles Vignes offers lots of garrigue, cigar, tobacco leaf and darker fruits to go with a medium to full-bodied, nicely balanced and textured style on the palate. The tannin is nicely integrated and while there’s upside here, it too will keep through 2021.

94
Jeb Dunnuck, RobertParker.com (227), October 2016

A soft nose of damson, strawberry and a touch of cough candy. Quite intense. The palate is full-bodied with rich black fruits, redcurrants and tobacco with a touch of nougat. Great depth and power, though I sense it may have closed down a little. If you wait another 8-10 years, you will have an awesome wine on your hands. Tasted June 2005.

93/95
Neal Martin, RobertParker.com, August 2007

Bright red-ruby. Blackberry and cassis fruit aromas complicated by exotic spices, mocha and cola. Dense, thick, silky and seamless; at once plush and sharply delineated. Very concentrated, pliant Chateauneuf du Pape with excellent lift: very 2001 in style. Smooth and persistent on the back end.

92
Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, January 2004
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.