Sept. 23 Chateauneuf du Pape (we trust the first of several visits)
Baronnie d'Estouard
We were waiting for an afternoon appointment at Vieux Lazaret and decided to investigate this producer, unknown to us. Turns out that the English speaking proprietor is an interesting fellow who doesn’t export and charges premium prices for his wines.
2008 Vacqueyras – a very ripe nose that wouldn’t have been out of place in a 2007, good colour, but I thought that the fruit was a bit roasted and the acidity a tad high.
2008 Gigondas – better body, lots of tannin, very decent.
2008 Chateauneuf - this 70%grenache wine presented a really good nose , smooth on palate and it drank well.
2007 Chateauneuf – great nose! Concentrated in nose and on palate but falling nicely short of being over ripe . Very tasty and with excellent length. Had to buy a bottle to bring home, even at the 60E + price.
2005 Chateauneuf – plum nose with a hint of rubber slightly roasted and still tannic. Needs time. Not as good as the 2007.
2004 Chateauneuf – stewy nose at first improved with time . Smooth.
Anyone else have experience with this producer?
After lunch with a couple of bottles of refreshing CDR Villages, we headed for Vieux Lazaret
Vieux Lazaret
Bizarre start to this visit, where I had lined up a cellar visit, and instead of taking a walk through the production area, we followed a young lady out into the vineyards outside of town for about 5 km., debarked and started walking through the vineyards. We thought that we’d be taking a quick peek at the vines, and after ascertaining that our guide knew little about them (like which vine was what grape varietal) and stumbling along over ‘les galets’, the large stones that hold the heat at night and protect the roots in the hot days, we began to refer to our ordeal as the ‘Chateauneuf Death March’. Finally, as our reward for not having fallen by the wayside, we stumbled back to the tasting room and were offered tasting of available vintages.
2009 Houchart Rose – Jerome Quiot has property in Provence as well as two adjoining properties in CNduP. The wine was a quiet decent little pink.
2009 Trignon blanc (Roussanne) – I wasn’t a fan of this having no doubt been spoiled by the many crisp Sablet whites we’d been drinking. A bit pedestrian.
2008 Lazaret CNduP blanc – a faint apricot in the nose that I found quite appealing, fairly full flavoured in the mouth .
2008 Dom. Duclaux blanc – their other property. Oaked and pleasant for that, with a whiskey barrel nose and a clean presentation, but not a style I’d drink all the time.
2007 Viex Lazaret CNduP – quite a ripe nose, rich sweet and long in the mouth, but a bit much. Not a classic wine, but a pretty typical result in the hot 2007 vintage.
2005 Duclaux CNduP – warm roasted fruit nose, smooth and soft in the mouth and drinking well now.
2006 Vieux Lazaret CNduP Cru Exceptionelle – leather, meat and fig in this nose, very nise, good weight on palate, soft tannins, long finish with tang of black pepper at the end. Good wine. Bought some for la maison (making a daube de boeuf tonight).
I’ll append notes on a couple of things we picked up at the local hyper-marche.
2009 Dom. Du Paternal Cassis blanc – ripe tropical fruit (mango?) nose, but after that things deteriorated because it went short and bland (not flat – it had plenty of acidity) in the mouth.
2009 Les Adrets (Adrian Vacher) Roussette de Savoie Altesse – a lovely discovery from the east of us, made from Roussette (aka Altesse) grapes – a nice honey apple nose, soft in the mouth but well structured and with good length.
