CWD: '99 Vieux Tlgraph CndP Blanc

D

drssouth

Stephen South
With grilled chicken and vegetables

White Chateauneufs seem to be an underappreciated and fairly rare choice of many wine drinkers..

1999 Domaine du Vieux Tlgraph Chateauneuf-du-Pape "La Crau" Blanc, alc 14%, $28: Waxy honeycomb on the nose with a hint of hay...luxurious on the palate with a silkiness and texture that just glides across the palate...lemon curd, ginger, and orange blossom flourish in a brisk acidity driven package...this just sings with the food...excellent...no hurry to get to this one

(Clairette and Grenache Blanc at 40% and 30% with 15% of bourboulenc and roussanne)
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
sounds lovely. i wonder do these shut down like the white hermitages seem to do?
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I have had most quite young (1-3 yrs), some 5-10 yrs and some 15+ yrs... I haven't seen the same phenomenon of "hibernation"...guess it would depend on the varieties represented
 
What's interesting is that about eight years ago I was with Daniel Brunier for VT and his importer, Kermit Lynch. I mentioned that the day before I had done a vertical at Clos des Papes going back to the mid-1980s, and they seemed very surprised. They consider white Chteauneuf a wine for drinking young. Vincent Avril, at Clos des Papes, considers it a wine for aging.

At Beaucastel, the whites sometimes go through dumb phases between ages of 3 and 10.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
What's interesting is that about eight years ago I was with Daniel Brunier for VT and his importer, Kermit Lynch. I mentioned that the day before I had done a vertical at Clos des Papes going back to the mid-1980s, and they seemed very surprised. They consider white Chteauneuf a wine for drinking young. Vincent Avril, at Clos des Papes, considers it a wine for aging.

At Beaucastel, the whites sometimes go through dumb phases between ages of 3 and 10.
Click to expand...

i was reading similar info about the wines being early drinkers only......but that wines which aren't allowed to reach malolactic fermentation may be longer lived. makes me curious about how VT and Beaucastel make theirs.
 
They can shut down in a way very similar to Hermitage. They seem to have become too old and oxydized. And it is unpredictable when they will come out of it. When they do, different things happen. Old Clos des Papes gets minerally and Chablis-like. Old Beaucastel gets the honey, hazelnut qualities of old Hermitage. This one sounds as if its re-opening into that latter group.
 
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