2015 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
Pale yellow. A powerful, complex bouquet evokes fresh Meyer lemon, pear nectar, iodine and jasmine, and a chalky mineral topnote adds vivacity. Sappy, penetrating citrus and orchard fruit nectar and honeysuckle flavors stain the palate and display a compelling blend of richness and finesse, delivering serious power but no undue weight. Finishes juicy, taut and extremely long, delivering impressive, youthful tension and a repeating floral quality. I expect this wine to age along the lines of a serious white Burgundy.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
John Livingstone-Learmonth, Drink Rhône
More reviews and scores
A big, rich wine by Vincent’s standards, the 2015 Châteauneuf du Pape Blanc offers lots of salty minerality in its ripe citrus, spiced apples and honeycomb-laced aromas and flavors. It shows terrific purity and tension on the palate, yet also has plenty of heft and depth. Feel free to enjoy bottles over the coming couple of years, or after a decade or more.
A big, rich wine by Vincent’s standards, the 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc offers lots of salty minerality in its ripe citrus, spiced apples and honeycomb-laced aromas and flavors. It shows terrific purity and tension on the palate, yet also has plenty of heft and depth. Feel free to enjoy bottles over the coming couple of years, or after a decade or more. Oct 2016, www.robertparker.com
Yellow robe. Peach-white plum lead the bouquet which is attractively round and engaging, curvy. There are outlierts of oiliness, infused tea, aniseed de Marseille. The palate commences on pear with peach, then gives a good gain in grip, tightness. There is grounding, crunch towards the finish, where it grips via its glycerol. It’s true sudiste/southern wine, STGT in the glass. I wouldn’t go for this young, and would wait until around 2021-22: any earlier, and you are merely scratching the surface. Bottled first week of March 2016. “It is 30% Bourboulenc and Picpoul – they play a large role in hot years like 2015 and 2016,” Vincent Avril. Oct 2016, www.drinkrhone.com
About the producer
Few estates have shaped the identity of Châteauneuf-du-Pape quite like Clos des Papes. For generations, the Avril family has remained devoted to a single benchmark cuvée, crafted from more than twenty vineyard parcels to express the appellation at its finest.
Product details
Picpoul, Bourboulenc, Grenache Blanc / Garnacha Blanca, Clairette
White
Dry