WTN: The Teen Pope

[David M. Bueker]

2000 Clos du Mont-Olivet Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (3/21/2017)
This is fully mature, and drinking very well, as it has developed a complex perfume of old leather, earth, dry herbs, spice and red fruit that is carried on a light to medium bodied frame with just sufficient structure to hold it together. It seems unlikely that there is further upside potential, but I see no reason to think it will decline any time soon.

That TN matches my impressions of the wine. It's showing very well right now.

I was on a wine tasting trip up the Rhone valley in 1999. In Chateauneuf-du-Pape we visited two estates: Beaucastel and Clos du Mont-Olivet. You couldn't have a bigger contrast. Beaucastel was a large, almost industrial operation. Everything was absolutely squeaky-clean; I wouldn't have hesitated to eat off the floors. Mont-Olivet was a countryside villa. To get to the cave where the vats were, we had to walk through a courtyard where grandma was feeding free-range chickens. The cave itself was damp and had mold growing on the ceiling that could have starred in its own horror film.

-Paul W.