Tuesday, July 2, 2013

2007 Chateauneuf de Pape Janasse Cuvee Chaupin

Parker raved about this year and this particular bottle so procured 3 about 4 years ago. First one tasted was very good but young. 3 years later quite a difference. Just a beautiful expression of old vine grenache, intense cherry and strawberry fruit, sort of like fruit candy drops, overlaid by wintergreen and other spices and maybe lavender or other flowery notes. Tannin barely detectible and acid pretty low. All in all what I'd call a pretty glass of wine. The aromas are still a bid subdued compared to the up-front fruit on the palate. Don't know if this will get better with a couple more yrs in bottle. Probably. Meanwhile, I look forward to future bottle of '07 and also have a couple of '10's to drink. 94 points from me.

By the way I visited this wonderful Janasse vineyard with Francie, enjoyed generous personal tasting (no charge) and warm welcome from the owner family. Great memory.

Says IWC/Tanzer: Opaque ruby. Spicy raspberry and cherry aromas are complicated by garrigue and Asian spices. Sweet, focused red fruit flavors are given spine by zesty minerality and pick up an exotic floral quality with air. Expands nicely on the finish, leaving behind sweet lavender pastille and raspberry notes. 94 points.

The less restrained Parker 98 points==he says drink til 2031:
Made from 100% Grenache (60- to 80-year-old vines) aged largely in neutral oak foudres with a small amount in new barrels, the inky/ruby/purple-hued 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Chaupin is the greatest example of this offering since the 1998, but it is even more concentrated than that wine. A cold terroir and sandy/clay soils have given the wine an extraordinary amount of acidity and freshness that serve it well in buttressing the fabulously concentrated, massively extracted, old vine Grenache. This blockbuster wine possesses enormous richness and density as well as an incredibly unevolved, young personality. Everything is there, including awesome aromatics, unbelievable layers of kirsch, raspberries, licorice, incense, and blacker fruits, and a finish that goes on for close to a minute. However, I would age this wine for 2-4 years and drink it over the following two decades or more. It is a tour de force in old vine Grenache as well as one of the vintage’s most compelling wines. 

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