TN: 2006 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau

[JimHow]

• 2006 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (2/18/2009)
  I really like the spicy character of this Vieux Telegraphe. I don't find it closed at all. To the contrary, I find it quite fruit-forward. Those are my initial impressions, let's see how it performs with dinner. As the snow begins to fall.... Sometimes the best way to describe a wine of quality is in the negative: By describing what it is not. I get no astringency here. No unripeness. Absolutely no issues with the 14.5% alcohol level. As was the case earlier, so is it in the end: fruit-forward, ripe, tannic but not unpleasantly so. A very appealing spicyness that I like particularly. Not a big profound nose, but classy nonetheless. What's there to complain about with this wine? A classy, balanced wine. A baby, to be sure, but by no means closed, at least on this night. I liked it! And I'm looking forward to trying other vintages. As usual, Parker has it dead on at 92 points. I'll call it 91+ points, just to differ. I have no idea how long this wine will age, but I'm guessing it has both the fruit and tannic structure to stick around for at least a couple decades. Rating: 91+ points. (91 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[Chasse-Spleen]

Jim,
I got a note from you but the content was deleted. In fact I got another note which also had the content deleted, which makes me wonder if something's wrong. But anyway, I can't seem to find your email address, which I know I had before. I'm not at my job anymore, if you got anything bounced back there.

And, great note - that wine sounds really lush and enticing.

-Chris

[JimHow]

Chris that's weird, I sent a private message to you, blanquito and Ian, but it looks like it got deleted. I wonder what happened. I'll try it again tomorrow.

As for the '06 Vieux Telegraphe, I just can't really find anything to criticize. It's a solid young wine that is not overly alcoholic. Unfortunately, I think it came out at the nadir of the U.S. dollar, so the price may reduce its attractiveness. I'm not sure it's worth the $65 I paid in NH last week, probably more like $50. I guess if I'm really searching for something to criticize, that would be it. I may buy a bottle or two more when it goes on sale in NH. But overall, it is a very enjoyable wine, made in a style that I find very appealing.

[Jay Winton]

my post on this topic was also deleted...strange

[Houndsong]

14.5% is quite Bordeaux-like nowadays.

[FrankD]

Last time I looked Zachy's had the 2007 VT on sale for $30/bottle.

Should I grab a few? I know nothing about 2007 in the Rhône.

F

[JimHow]

I think that is the "Telegramme," Frank, which is the second wine of that property, if I'm not mistaken... although, Parker scores that wine high as well in 2007.

2007 is supposed to be the vintage of eternity in the Rhone, from what I've been reading.

[FrankD]

Thanks for pointing that out Jim. I'm aware of Telegramme but they show the Telegraphe label and they have it listed so it pops on searches for Telegraphe -- and I got it as a hit on wine-searcher pro for Telegraphe. So I might have even ordered it without noticing that it was a different wine. Good old Zachy's.

F

[JimHow]

Yeah I saw that, quite deceptive.

[Houndsong]

When do they start bottling the "Television?" Aren't they a bit behind the times?

[FrankD]

The story of the name is actually quite interesting. The "old telegraph" was originally a station for the system in Napoleon's day, which involved visual signaling and semaphore. They eventually replaced it with the more modern wired telegraph but there were concerns that this new-fangled device was too easy to disable in wartime simply by snipping the wires. Here is a good write-up

F

[DavidG]

my post on this topic was also deleted...strange

When I first saw this I thought you were referring to your post on "this topic" in the viewtopic.php?f=4&t=261other%20thread%2 ... his%20wine. But your post in that thread is missing, and I'm pretty sure it was there before. Hmm... Did you try to go in to edit your post? Any chance you could have deleted it? Moderators have "delete" power but none of us have used it.

[Jay Winton]

nope, didn't do nuthin so not sure what happened. Maybe a "Higher" power disagreed with me...

[DavidG]

It's aliens, I tell you. I seen 'em. We'll have to see if stuff like this keeps happening - mostly the board seems to be running pretty smoothly.