2016 Chateauneuf du Pape
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Tasting notes
Lurid ruby. A complex, highly perfumed bouquet evokes raspberry liqueur, cherry compote, exotic spices and candied lavender. Juicy, seamless and alluringly sweet, offering impressively concentrated and sharply delineated flavors of sappy red fruits, succulent herbs, spicecake and candied flowers that spread out steadily on the back half. Densely packed but also lithe in character, finishing with slow-building tannins that shape the exuberant red fruit on the extremely long, sappy and penetrating finish.
Critic scores
Average Score
Josh Raynolds, Vinous
Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider
More reviews and scores
Closed nose, very much in recess at present, but with plenty of brooding black fruit on the palate. Chocolate, aniseed, leathery, meaty. Impressive length, and well proportioned, yet there is much less complexity and scope than it is bound to be capable of.
The spicy cherries might be the first thing you notice, but it only gets better from there with all the flowers, pepper, herbs and kirsch that kicks in from there. Full bodied, rich, concentrated and luxurious in texture, the sensuous layers of cherry, plum and kirsch seem endless as they build and expand in the finish. The fruit has a beautiful purity and intensity that makes you want to taste it again and again. There is a hint of licorice and salinity in the finish that comes out with air. The wine is a blend of 55% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah and the remaining 5% consists of various, allowable grape varieties. This is a monumental vintage for Clos des Papes that should not be missed by fans of this wine.
The 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape is full-bodied but balanced, with plenty of richness and concentration but also a certain paradoxical lightness. It offers complex garrigue and anise notes, a blend of cherry and raspberry fruit, a silky texture and a long finish that shows no sign of the wine's 15.8% alcohol. For technocrats, the wine's pH is 3.7, which is sufficient acidity to maintain a fine sense of balance. This lovely wine should drink well for at least two decades. Together with the 2015 and the 2017, it will be a compelling trio of wines to follow over the years.