Vieilles Vignes Châteauneuf-du-Pape Red Rhone Blend

Wasn’t great when first opened. Finished real astringent. Opened up quite a bit and softened up. Think this bottle wasn’t as good as it could have been.

At a perfect point in its life. Burgundian elegance with that distinctive Rhône savoriness and spice

My last of three bottles. A richly extracted, very minerally example of CDP. Lots of sediment, so needs careful decanting. Takes a while to open up, but slowly deeply oozy dark, pure berry extract emerges along with nice minerality, some woody herbs, and an animal-like note. Also some significant Brett, which mostly blew off after about 90 minutes of decanter aeration. Pretty good acids for a CDP. Still tannic, and would benefit from a few more years of cellaring, but big and tasty now.