Our friend Oswaldo invited us for a tasting to 2001 CdPs last night. As
always, he was a great host, providing excellent cheeses and a
delicious salad, making sure evening was paced so we had a chance to
leisurely try -and retry- each wine, and making sure the guest list was
interesting.

A white starter as we gathered:
2003 Tardieu-Laurent "Guy Louis" Côtes du Rhône blanc
The combination of Tardieu-Laurent, '03, & white Rhône made me sure
that this would be flabby, but by the standards of white Rhône I'd
have to say this had decent acidity. Some light coconut/vanilla notes
(not as oaky as some T-Ls), rather fragrant peach fruit with a floral
component. As noted before, I'm not a big fan of Marsanne, Roussane, or
Viognier, so take my lack of enthusiasm with a grain of salt. B

2001 Raymond Usseglio " Cuvée Girard" Chteauneuf-du-Pape
Nose is red berries and a little herb, but palate is quite closed at
first. After a while opened up. Jammy kirsch fruit and a little
vanillin oak. Pleasant enough, but not especially distinctive. B

2001 Le Vieux Donjon Chteauneuf-du-Pape
Surprisingly open, with crushed red berry fruit overlaid with aromas of
leather, warm climate herbs, and meat. Evolves with warm black plum
fruit alongside the raspberry/cherry, with some black pepper. Typical,
structured, complex. Excellent CdP - I don't actually remember a young
CdP I've ever liked more, though it certainly has a future. A-/A

2001 Cuvée du Vatican " Sixtine Réserve" Chteauneuf-du-Pape
Tannic and dense. Pretty oaky, though there is a lot of ripe red fruit
buoying it up. Certainly impressive, if not my style of CdP. B+/B

2000 Phillippe Delesvaux "Clos de la Guiberderie"
Coteaux-du-Layon-St.Aubin
A little bit of a paradox- how can a wine be heavy on the botrytis and
short on the complexity? Immediate hit of noble rot, but this is a
one-trick pony.
Honey and apricots, but short on finish for a dessert wine. B

A fun night with an interesting group, good food, and excellent
conversation (on the physical vs. the metaphysical, Lacan and language,
Anglo-Saxon vs. European sensibilities, whether the host should show
restraint if a guest is an idiot, and more topics). Thanks Oswaldo.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent
wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't
drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no
promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency

DaleW wrote:

> 2001 Le Vieux Donjon Chteauneuf-du-Pape
> Surprisingly open, with crushed red berry fruit overlaid with aromas of
> leather, warm climate herbs, and meat. Evolves with warm black plum
> fruit alongside the raspberry/cherry, with some black pepper. Typical,
> structured, complex. Excellent CdP - I don't actually remember a young
> CdP I've ever liked more, though it certainly has a future. A-/A

Dale, I like Vieux Donjon a lot and buy it whenever I can find it. Do
you think that this wine is going to shut down? Or is this another
example of the no-longer-shutting down phenomenon that people mention
wrt CdP?

Thanks for the notes. It does sound like a great evening.

Mark Lipton

Mark Lipton wrote:
> Dale, I like Vieux Donjon a lot and buy it whenever I can find it. Do
> you think that this wine is going to shut down? Or is this another
> example of the no-longer-shutting down phenomenon that people mention
> wrt CdP?
>

Oswaldo had opened it in midafternoon, without decanting. It seemed
pretty open to me. While I do believe in CdP closing down, certainly
not every wine in every vintage- even big vintages- does. And I'm not
sure I can even make a generalization about modern vs. traditional that
would hold any water. In other words, idontknow.

In article .com>,
"DaleW" > wrote:

> Our friend Oswaldo invited us for a tasting to 2001 CdPs last night. As
> always, he was a great host, providing excellent cheeses and a
> delicious salad, making sure evening was paced so we had a chance to
> leisurely try -and retry- each wine, and making sure the guest list was
> interesting.
>
> A white starter as we gathered:
> 2003 Tardieu-Laurent "Guy Louis" Côtes du Rhône blanc
> The combination of Tardieu-Laurent, '03, & white Rhône made me sure
> that this would be flabby, but by the standards of white Rhône I'd
> have to say this had decent acidity. Some light coconut/vanilla notes
> (not as oaky as some T-Ls), rather fragrant peach fruit with a floral
> component. As noted before, I'm not a big fan of Marsanne, Roussane, or
> Viognier, so take my lack of enthusiasm with a grain of salt. B
>
> 2001 Raymond Usseglio " Cuvée Girard" Chteauneuf-du-Pape
> Nose is red berries and a little herb, but palate is quite closed at
> first. After a while opened up. Jammy kirsch fruit and a little
> vanillin oak. Pleasant enough, but not especially distinctive. B
>
> 2001 Le Vieux Donjon Chteauneuf-du-Pape
> Surprisingly open, with crushed red berry fruit overlaid with aromas of
> leather, warm climate herbs, and meat. Evolves with warm black plum
> fruit alongside the raspberry/cherry, with some black pepper. Typical,
> structured, complex. Excellent CdP - I don't actually remember a young
> CdP I've ever liked more, though it certainly has a future. A-/A
>
> 2001 Cuvée du Vatican " Sixtine Réserve" Chteauneuf-du-Pape
> Tannic and dense. Pretty oaky, though there is a lot of ripe red fruit
> buoying it up. Certainly impressive, if not my style of CdP. B+/B
>
> 2000 Phillippe Delesvaux "Clos de la Guiberderie"
> Coteaux-du-Layon-St.Aubin
> A little bit of a paradox- how can a wine be heavy on the botrytis and
> short on the complexity? Immediate hit of noble rot, but this is a
> one-trick pony.
> Honey and apricots, but short on finish for a dessert wine. B
>
> A fun night with an interesting group, good food, and excellent
> conversation (on the physical vs. the metaphysical, Lacan and language,
> Anglo-Saxon vs. European sensibilities, whether the host should show
> restraint if a guest is an idiot, and more topics). Thanks Oswaldo.
>
> Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent
> wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't
> drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no
> promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency

Interesting, all of the 2001 CDP's I've opened have been in dumb phase.
Did you open these way in advance?