TN: 1999 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve

  • 1999 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (7/18/2017)
    I don’t know who PRBY is, but probably the same bottle. Wow!! I hesitate to use the word perfect when describing a wine because it can always be better, but this wine made the word perfect enter the conversation. The winemaker performed his or her craft with great precision, and the force was with them. Beautiful Grenache fruit vinified so there were no flaws or even close to it. The fruit was full, soft and rounded as a pure example of what Grenache can exhibit. There were gobs and gobs of flavor with nothing that could be considered jammy or syrupy. After the bottle was almost done I took the last tiny pour and it went down like silk. It was not until I looked at my glass and saw this lump of sediment that I realized that even the dregs were better than most wines. WOTY so far. (97 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Yes Jay, same bottle. Such great stuff! It was good meeting you and the rest of the crew last night.

Wow, that’s definitely some high-falutin’ praise right there!

This was a bottle that even ________ [fill in the bank with Keith L., Alf or Salil] would love. I have a bottle of the 2001 (which I got a year ago and I suspect was ex chateau), which is supposed to be a much better vintage than the 1999. It’s hard to believe it can be significantly superior to this wine.

It’s amazing how this wine, and 2000 too, have transformed in the last few years. Not so long ago they seemed like weak links in the chain of Rayas vintages. Now they’re superb. Check out the 2000 Pignan if you see it.

Rayas is honestly legendary wine. There really isn’t much else like it in the world - very unique and every vintage brings something special to the table. It’s one of the few wines that I buy all I can get my hands on without hesitation.

Funny timing, I was just trying to buy the range of Rayas 1999s from the Chambers sale, and they flew away lickety-split! As did most everything else, Allemand, Juge, Jamet, Clape.

The 01 has one of the most complex and exciting bouquet on the nose. So good.

Thanks for posting this. I know that the term typicity is not one that is used much more or that is one that is favored by most.

To me, Rayas (and Pignan) are such beautiful examples of a variety that I love so much and exhibit the dichotomy of being delicate monsters in such a seamless way.

It is a shame that these are so expensive and so difficult to get, for of more folks had a chance to try these, I feel they would understand the variety better and what it can truly bring to the table.

Cheers.

Absolutely. Though the Château des Tours wines do give some of the magic at a fraction of the price. Frankly, I wish I had drunk more Château des Tours and aged a lot of my Rayas, Pignan and Fonsalette for longer, as I am currently kicking myself for having opened too many bottles of vintages like 00, 01, 04, 06 earlier this decade when they were not so expensive. 2009 just hit in the UK and apparently Monsieur Reynaud has asked his importers to limit allocations to three bottles of each cuvée per customer. The prices are also considerably higher than was the case for the 2008s. Happy to have them, but they will be sleeping for two decades before I start pulling corks.

So right. I wish I had another bottle of the '01, but I did have it one time, last Christmastime, and still have a bottle of the '99 (which Jay makes sounds ready to go dig out and open).

Do you know what else is being released this year? The 2009 Pignan as well? What was the release price on the '09 Rayas in the UK?

The whole portfolio - Fonsalette red and white, Rayas red and white and Pignan. Rayas red is 210 GBP.

Don’t think they have been released yet stateside but should be soon.

Rayas and des Tours are wines that modernist palates, traditionalists and AFWE people all seem to agree on. Even CdP haters it seems. It would be nice if there was an out of consensus voice to kick up some dust. It won’t be mine alas. I’ve only drunk a handful of Rayas and I’ve loved every bottle. I’ve had much more des Tours Cdr and Vacqueyras and I also love them. Oh, well, we’ll all just have to all get along.

There is not a huge difference in quality between 1999 and 2001 Rayas (I think I´ve stated it here already) … both are great … (many didn´t think so 10y ago) - 99 is a bit more lush, 01 still a bit more focused, but it´s simply a matter of time in the bottle …