2001 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape

The 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape is a beauty! Classic and textbook in style, with ample cured meats, earth, herbs and mature currant and blackberry fruit, it flows onto the palate with full-bodied richness, a gorgeous texture and serious length. It’s drinking beautifully now, but will continue to shine through 2021. Another bastillion of traditional Chateauneuf du Pape, Vieux Donjon is owned by Lucien and Marie Jose Michel, with the winemaking now firmly in the hands of their talented daughter, Claire Michel. They produce a single red and white Chateauneuf du Pape, with the red always a rough blend of 75% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre and the balance a mix of other permitted varieties. They started partial destemming in 1993, pulling out the green stems and keeping the more lignified stems. Aging occurs all in concrete tanks and older foudre. This was a fabulous tasting with both Claire and her brother Francois, and as I hope the notes show, the wines have classic Chateauneuf du Pape character and broad drink windows. Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173

The 2001 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a blend of 75% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre, and 5% Cinsault, primarily from very old vines. Mostly destemmed (depending on the vintage), the wine is aged for 18 months in old foudres. Showing a downright masculine bouquet of meaty dark fruits, iron, dried blood, pepper, and garrigue, the wine is medium to full bodied on the palate with fantastic precision, a pure, focused texture, loads of tannin, and huge finish. There’s lots of upside here and this should be very long lived. Give bottles another 3-5 years in the cellar, and then drink over the following decade.

Red-ruby. Flamboyant, wild Chateauneuf du Pape aromas of raspberry, pepper, leather, Cuban cigar tobacco, fruitcake, game and truffle. Explosive, layered and deep, with captivating flavors of game, leather, melting chocolate cake, leather, incense and black pepper. Wonderfully suave and silky but with terrific verve and grip. Finishes with fine, palate-coating tannins and sneaky length. If someone sticks a glass of this in your face and you don't say Chateauneuf du Pape, you should give up wine drinking.