2015 Domaine Jean Royer Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Les Sables de la Crau
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Tasting notes
The 2015 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Sables de La Crau is 100% Grenache from the sandy part of the famed La Crau lieu-dit. It offers terrific notes of wild strawberries, currants, dried flowers and spice, full-bodied richness, sweet, polished tannin and a great finish. While this vintage was difficult for the sandy terroirs, this cuvée is impressive! Vigneron Jean-Marie Royer pulls from a number of prime terroirs, most consisting of sandy soils. While 2015 was challenging for the sandier parts of the appellation, he’s turned out a bevy of beautiful wines. His 2016s are some of the finest I’ve tasted from the estate.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
Tight and cedary, the 2015 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee les Sables de la Crau reins in its 100% Grenache fruit with a blanket of oak (it was matured in demi-muids for 12 months). Taut cranberry fruit comes across as crisp and tannic, made even firmer by the addition of oak. Give this one some cellaring and see if the oak better integrates over time.
Vivid ruby-red. Intense, sharply focused red fruit liqueur, spicecake and floral scents are complicated by suggestions of smoky minerals and Asian spices. Sappy, penetrating and appealingly sweet, offering silky raspberry and lavender pastille flavors that put on weight and spread out steadily with air. Closes smooth, sweet and impressively long, displaying suave, fine-grained tannins and resonating florality.
La Crau. 100% Grenache. Partial whole-bunch fermentation in stainless steel. Aged for 12 months in demi-muids . pH 3.5, TA 3.5 g/l. Tasted blind. Transparent cherry red. Hint of coconut on the nose. Then lots of cherryade. Nothing too forced here and quite a streak of acidity. But why is it cuvée spéciale, I wonder? Rather rasping tannins on the end. (JR)