Region | |
---|---|
Subregion | France > Rhône > Southern Rhône > Châteauneuf-du-Pape |
Colour | Red |
Type | Still |
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Domaine de la Charbonnière
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.
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.
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.
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.