Châteauneuf-du-Pape Red Rhône Blend

Double decanted two nights before service. The 2006 pours a deep, slightly hazy garnet color with a near opaque core; medium+ viscosity with light staining of the tears. On the nose, the wine is vinous with a mix of desiccated fruit and funky umami notes: bruised and desiccated strawberry, red rope licorice, nori, Cherry Dr. Pepper, cracked black pepper and leather. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+ tannin and medium+ acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is forever long and saline; it just hangs around forever. Initially, this came across as bit backward but it really gained power and character the more time it spent in the glass. Drink now with patience and through 2036.

Capitol Region Wine Collectors Club (WCC), Chateauneuf du Pape; 5 October 2023 at Café Capriccio, Albany, NY

Library from the domaine. Still a baby, let it rest for 5 more. Blackberry, sumac, dried thyme. Delicious but tight.

It took two bottles but here we are. This is in the zone. Don’t hold. 2019 is the end.

Fresh games blue fruit. A lean, bright edge with some tang- then quite tart fruit. Good balance. A leaner, fresher CNdP.

Tastes more like a mature Bandol than a CDP. Smoky, barky, deeply gravelly, intensely concentrated dark blackberry fruit. A little scorchy note in the finish. Very full and still some tannin to shed.

Deep and complex with focused blue fruit, garrigue, stony and almost smoky. Beautiful complexity and definitely showing some secondary notes, but the acidity (at least of this bottle) was pretty high still and didn't start to integrate until 4 hours in the decanter. Plenty of life left to hold onto bottles for 5-10 years.

Concentrated, ripe blue and black fruit. Soft, fleshy texture. Cracked pepper and spice. Clean earth. Drying flower petal. Beginning to develop secondary character behind adolescent acid. This was in a good spot and has miles ahead of it. Pretty outrageous stuff.

Wednesday nights, you need a pork chop!

Grenache is coming through pretty strong in this one, but the backbone is there. Needs a few more years.