2016 Domaine La Barroche Chateauneuf du Pape Julien Barrot
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
Shimmering ruby. Powerful raspberry, boysenberry and floral scents show excellent clarity and take on subtle smoke and allspice nuances as the wine opens up. Juicy and penetrating on the palate, offering appealingly sweet red and blue fruit and spicecake flavors that deepen on the back half, with no loss of energy. Silky, well-knit tannins make a late appearance on a very long, seamless finish that emphatically echoes the floral and spice notes. This is an outstanding entry-level bottling.
Critic scores
Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The quality of what could be considered the “entry-level” cuvée from Barrot is the equivalent of most estate’s top wine, and the 2016 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Signature delivers the goods again. It’s almost too good and certainly not far behind the Pure cuvée. A blend of 62% Grenache, 18% Mourvèdre, and the rest Cinsault, Syrah, Vaccarèse, and Clairette Rose, brought up in foudre and demi-muid, it sports a head-turning bouquet of kirsch liqueur, blackberries, crushed herbs, and pepper. With a big mid-palate, full body, ripe tannins, and a rocking finish, it’s a no-brainer purchase that will keep for two decades. The brilliant Julien Barrot has recently completed work on his new cellar located just across from Clos de Pape, inside the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and he continues to make a pure, elegant style of wine from his roughly 32 acres of vines, most of which are on sandy soils. While the estate has produced wine for decades now (although the first commercial vintage was 2003), the first truly breakout vintage was 2005. He’s followed that up with a succession of incredible wines in just about every vintage. Looking at the 2016s, this is another great vintage here, and the wines resemble what was produced in 2010, although with slightly more elegance and approachability. I don’t see the 2017s hitting the heights of the 2005s, 2007s, 2010, or 2016s, but one thing I’ve learned after reviewing these wines since their debut is that they always show better from bottle than barrel. Simply put, life is too short not to drink quantities of Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Julien Barrot!
A terrific entry-level offering, the 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Signature is a blend of 62% Grenache, 18% Mourvèdre, 12% Syrah, 6% Cinsault and 2% other varieties. It's full-bodied and intense but silky and almost weightless, delivering wonderful, complex notes of cherries, raspberries and an array of dried spices and herbs. With 2,500 cases produced, it should be fairly widely available and reasonably priced.