I’m coming back to taste this on Day 2; opened it originally last night. It’s even better on Day 2 than last night. Medium dark red, with noticeable bricking around the edges. A very aromatic nose of
ripe plums, a bit of funk/leather, and miscellaneous spices. The taste is even deeper and richer than the nose, with more ripe plums, saddle leather/funk (although good funk IMHO), licorice, and an element that’s almost like expresso. Still quite a bit of fine tannins on the finish, which is quite long. A wonderful aged CdP that is entering maturity, but probably will continue to age well for at least another 5-10+ years; a Bruce L. “wow plus.”
The '90 was pretty awesome but many years ago. Had the 98 not too long ago and excellent and in the drinking window. Really lovely more old school CdP and classic Donjon at its best.
I don’t think VT are to be commended, they do it, just in a different way. It seems the La Crau has become the Gucci edition while the constantly rebranded lesser wines are now the regular bottlings.
I don’t understand this. Didn’t they re-brand the second wine exactly once (there was Vieux Mas Des Papes and now Telegramme)? VT hasn’t gone up in price more than lots of other wines there, so I see no evidence of it being treated like a new high end wine. Don’t they make upwards of 15000 cases?
La Roquete is a separate domaine owned by the Brunier family. Recently they started bottling the Piedlong lieu dit separately. The label looks a lot like the VT label but those words appear nowhere on it.
It could well be my lack of knowledge but I have always found the whole line up at Brunier to be confusing and constantly in flux. A visit there in 2010 didn’t help clear things up.
I am not sure that La Roquete was always dealt with as a separate estate. They also changed the spelling after the 98 I think.
