TN: 1990-2003 Pegau Reservee - 2003 Clos des Papes

[HarryKaris]

Staying in Chateauneuf for 2 weeks. Very unstable weather, much rain and few days with a très forte Mistral that knocked me down when walking on the plateau la Crau!!

Last Thursday and Friday I tasted with Andreas Larsson (best sommelier in the world in 2007) about 95 old Chateauneuf wines from 1952-1999. Very interesting experience...I will report soon about....
With Isabel Ferrando from domaine Saint Prefert, Jean Lançon and Françoise from domaine de la Solitude we enjoyed with a kind of 'dutch' cuisine some nice wines.
The 2001 Mont-Olivet blanc, as reported before is an awesome wine... able to show and convince people who are not familiar with CdP's blancs, that blanc CdP can be great wines. Meursault like and with a very fresh layer and refined spiciness, nutty and caramel flavors. This wine is still available at the cave.......grab some, you will never find a better P/Q for CdP-blancs....

The reds are coming from my own cellar.
2003 Clos de Papes - all wines were not decanted - showed very well - expressive and great intensity - highly concentrated, plenty of kirsch liqueur and creamy licorice. Complex and long finish - no hot signs - good freshness, mostly ripe tannin.Burgundian elegance and refinement.

2003 Pegau's nose with it's typical garrigue is totally different styled. Very interesting comparing these two wines. Rustic, powerful and more tannic but with a very solid fruit core and strong building complex mid palate and a lingering well flavored finish. Although drinkable now, this wine will be more complete in 10 years.
The 1990 Pegau is very lush - a sexy beast I did report on recently. Will probably drinking well for another decade...

All wines are superb examples of different expression of the terroir.

CdP-Harry

[DavidG]

Good to hear these are not over-ripe. Sounds like the Clos des Papes is ready to go, but the Pegau would benefit from a nice long sleep in the cellar.

[stefan]

Both of those '03s sound very nice.

So your cellar has 14 year verticals of both Pegau Reserve and Clos du Papes? You treat it very nicely.

stefan

[HarryKaris]

Even more vintages Stefan... -:))

[JimHow]

I had some bottles of 2000 and 2001 Clos des Papes and I absolutely loved them. Unfortunately, I loved them too much, as they were quickly consumed. Then starting with the 2003 vintage the wines got very expensive here in the U.S. I think i had a bottle or two of the '04, which I seem to recall you enjoyed, Harry, but none since.