1998 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Horizontal

1998 Horizontal Châteauneuf-du-Pape (blind)

A. Dark bricking red. Balanced alcohol with chalky, grippy fruit. Perfumed, not cloying. Smells like a spring garden, fresh, uplifting, good energy. Complex nose and palate follows through without overt alcohol, not excessively jammy, harmonious. I was seduced by the lovely, restrained aromatics and cool, minerally flavor profile. Group # 3 (my #2) 1998 Janasse Chaupin This reminded me why I used to love this producer. More recent vintages have been far less classic.

B. Bright lavender color, ebullient nose of intense, candied cherries, sweeter than expected but lovely in its own way of fruit forward, less earthy or garrique. Definitely modern style wine, but successful in that light. More barrique than garrique. Group # 2 (my #4). RINGER: 1998 Ch. St. Cosme ‘Valbelle” (Gigondas)

C. Ashy, tight and opened into big, jammy, spoofy high alcohol wine. New wood. Candied fruit. Big boozy finish. Group # 6 (my #6). 1998 Pegau Cuvee Laurence (disappointing!)

D. More evolved, but structured and elegant. Wondered if this wine wouldn’t have been better 5 years ago. This continued to improve with earthy, savory notes balancing mature red/black fruit notes and a bit bretty/horsey. Kept improving through the night, flavors integrated well. Group #4 (my #1) but the earthy/bretty notes were too much for some. 1998 Pegau Reservee

E. Great balance, sexy wine without holes. Complete wine, large in scale with violets and a rocky minerality that gave it lift. Secondary aromatics of lemon, orange peel, blueberry emerge gracefully. This wine kept getting better and better and by the end of the day was quite clearly the best wine tonight. I ranked in 3rd originally, but upon revisiting it was pretty obvious that I had underscored the wine. Group # 1 (my # 3). 1998 Beaucastel

F. Thin, boozy, lean, uninteresting frankly, and didn’t improve over time or with dinner. A disappointment for sure. Group #6 (my #6) 1998 Vieux Telegraphe

Interesting showing by the Beaucastel in that I’ve heard of more than a few disappointing showings. Having a few bottles left, I’m encouraged. The VT showing is shocking for such an old school CDP. Do you think it might have been an off bottle?

Yes, good point Michael. I’m assuming this was an off bottle. Just charmless last night.

1998 VT has been pretty consistently like that in my experience. A London restaurant I know well returned five cases to their distributor.

I’ve also never had a good bottle of 1998 Beaucastel. It is rumored that it contains about 8g/L residual sugar. Certainly a far cry from Beaucastels like 1981 or 1989.

I haven’t had any bad bottles of the 98 VT, maybe I’ve been lucky.

At this age there is certainly going to be variation based on corks, storage etc.

It’s cool that this was done blind.

I haven’t had any bad 98 Beaucastel. Sounds like it’s time to revisit.

For whatever reason, I bought a case of the 98 Beaucastel after release. I’ve tried one every year or two since probably 2005 and have to say that for the longest time this wine was disjointed and disappointing. Around 2 or 3 years ago, it turned the corner and my last 3 experiences with the wine have been rewarding. Sadly, only 2 bottles left in the cellar.

Never did reach the pinnacle of the amazing 89 (though many 89 Beaucastels that made it to the NW seemed marred by brett). When the 89 is on, it is killer.

The first vintages of Beaucastel I ever cellared were '89 and '90. Was a bit like playing Russian roulette, many good bottles, some exceptional. After many disappointing vintages in the 90’s I stopped buying.

Compared to it’s promise, the 98 Beaucastel is a disappointment. Now that I know more about the wine, the switch in that year to being Grenache dominant instead of Mouvedre dominant meant it didn’t develop like previous vintages. My thought is that 01 is a more worth Beau.

Nice lineup. I don’t have much if any 1998 left. How about a 2003 blind tasting? Not necessarily a great vintage for those who like nuanced CdP but it’s been long enough a retrospective would be fun.

2003s…not really my type of vintage but always worth a look.

Although I find that the winemaking changed at Beaucastel in the late 90s, I don’t think they changed the cepage mix. Both their website and their tours, before they stopped giving them, still describe the wine as 30% Mourvedre and 30% Grenache. Of course the mix changes somewhat each year, and the 98 may have more Grenache then usual, but they are still an atypically high Mourvedre wine.

Diagnoses from far away are difficult but fwiw I don´t think the Pegau Laurence and VT were sound bottles (shipping, storage ???) - I know them different … VT 98 has a high TCA rate (2 out of 5), but if it´s ok it´s a classic still youthful black-fruited mineral CdP …
and the P-L is usually even better than the Pegau Resevée if different and more evolved, showing more leathery and spicy notes …
Beaucastel ´98 is not one of my fav. vintages, but it´s certainly a good wine which I found kind of “boring” (too straight-forward, too “fruity” compared with the old ones …) but for fans of this style it seemes to be a winner. YES - there is more Grenache in the blend than usual (I think 40%).

The VT wasn’t corked but hopefully just an off bottle.

The Pegau Laurence was the boring wine of the night. Provenance/storage was excellent. Just too modern.

I personally haven’t had a '98 VT that wasn’t great. OTOH, after years of enjoying the '98 Beau’s, I had a run of nasty barbecue saucy disasters.

Cheers,
Warren

Pretty sure 98 was a different blend with Grenache dominating

Interestingly enough, both the 2001, and the epic 1989 vintages, both had equal amounts of Mourvedre and Grenache at 30%. Here is a link that shows the blend of each of their vintages from 1985 through 2013 . . .

Cheers!

Pegau modern?
Far from it - absolutely NO new oak used - ever!
The C.Laurence is usually aged first in big old foudres, then in used (4-5 years) smaller barrels …

Alcoholic? Still sounds like an off-bottle …

I’ve had three bottles of the 1998 Beaucastel in the last year and all three were absolutely stellar. I think it’s not quite as good as 1989/1990, but not far away from those two. Don’t know about the rumours of the 1998 having 8 g/l residual sugar, but to me it tastes fully dry. Also, I think it tastes like Mourvèdre based with its dark fruit / leather kind of aromatic profile. I really like Pegau Reservée 1998 as well. I agree that it’s very earthy and animalic, but that’s a style I really like. Never had the Cuvée Laurence from 1998.

I’m still holding one bottle of 98 Le Vieux Donjon from a case I bought when it first showed up here on the market. As an experiment, I might hold off until 2023.