2007 CdP is disgusting

#ALTERNATIVEPAIRINGS - Chicago, IL (2/2/2017)

There is a (possibly apocryphal) story of Robert Parker advocating 2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape (en magnum) as a pairing to sushi. As this is the tenth anniversary of the vintage, and since Robert Parker is a critic of such great renown, we decided to follow his sage advice and try this pairing.

Real Wines
A few Champagnes and a dessert wine were served at this dinner – they were all reasonable beverages.

• NV Bérêche et Fils Champagne Reflet d’Antan - France, Champagne
  2009 base, 6 g/L dosage, May 2014 disgorgement. It’s odd. I had had this exact same disgorgement before, and thought it disappointing, but this bottle was showing very well tonight. This had a great balance of freshness and oxidative character, and there was plenty of white fruit here. Lots of taut acidity and chalkiness rounds out a really full-bodied champagne. (93 pts.)
• 2007 Roederer Estate L’Ermitage Brut - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
  This is a surprisingly sweet bottle of sparkling wine. There’s some pronounced red delicious apple flavours here (but also with a fair bit of acidity), as well as a biscuity character. It’s not bad, but the sweetness really throws me off a little bit. (85 pts.)
• NV Agrapart & Fils Champagne Grand Cru Terroirs - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
  Hah, twice in three days. This is pretty much the same as the last bottle I had – good taut acidity and white fruit. Super dense chalkiness on the palate, but I feel that a little bit more density as far as flavour is concerned would do this wine well. (88 pts.)
• 1991 M. Chapoutier Banyuls Vin Doux Naturel - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Banyuls
  From half bottle. This is like a Madeira without all the nice things that make Madeira Madeira. It’s got a little bit of that shiitake mushroom quality on the nose from the oxygen, but it feels more like oxidation that was done accidentally than on purpose. The palate shows moderate sweetness, with some golden raisin and date flavours, and the alcohol pokes out quite a bit. The necessary acidity to balance out the wine isn’t quite here either, unfortunately. (85 pts.)

2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape
At age 10, the 2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape “wines” tasted here are a complete and utter disaster. They are laughably bad. I remember having tasted the vintage early on and being impressed by the luscious fruit on that wine. A decade later, none of the “wines” tasted today could reasonably count “luscious fruit” as a descriptor. Those that haven’t otherwise been ruined but the modernist dogma of heavy oak treatments now suffer from flavours that evoke rotting fruit on an orchard in late October – that sickly, rotting flavour is really quite vile. After that, there are two separate issues. Many of the wines actually suffer from extreme emaciation. With ten years for the baby fat to dissipate, the midpalate has just dropped out completely, leaving a wretched husk with weedy and astringent tannins on the finish. The riper “wines” suffer from alcoholic bitterness on the back end. The hyperbolic and hysterical pronouncements of Parker, Suckling, and their ilk reminded me a little bit of the current ambient climate, and I have endeavoured to render my notes to these “wines” with contemporary suitability.

• 2007 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Réserve des Deux Frères - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Usseglio is charging over $200 for this wine! There is so much oak on this! Paying tremendous cost for blueberry milkshake, when so much cheaper at Mcdonalds. Need to renegotiate the price! (60 pts.)
• 2007 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  The failing wine advocate reports that this wine should have 95+ points! Clear bias for excessive ripe and alcohol wines, but thin weedy tannins! Why do these wines always score so well. Unfair! (80 pts.)
• 2007 Les Cailloux (Lucien et André Brunel) Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  MSM says this is good wine but I know better than that. Brown and pruney stuff. They are trying to sell wine that doesn’t have much acid too. We are getting killed here, need to stop them scoring wines like this! (80 pts.)
• 2007 Domaine Grand Veneur Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Origines - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Trying to buy wine and getting rotting fruit and poop. And it’s showing bigly. Not what I expected. What a bad deal. We are getting killed here! Should be safe to expect red flavors not brown. Sad! (60 pts.)
• 2007 Clos du Mont-Olivet Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Clos du Mont olivet is really candied and flabby. It has gained a lot of weight and this is a real problem! But the palate is still thin and tastes like bitter greens! (70 pts.)
• 2007 Clos Saint Jean Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  I am FORMALLY putting Clos Saint Jean on notice for this terrible wine! It should never have been made! So unbalanced! Tastes bitter! (60 pts.)
• 2007 Roger Sabon Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  This is only 10 years old wine, why is the fruit on this decaying already? Tastes like rotting! And bitter on the finish too, and heat shows bigly. Bad wine! (70 pts.)
• 2007 Bosquet des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape Chante Le Merle Vieilles Vignes - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Boring wine, tastes like plum. MSM keeps trying to make people like these things, but they are WRONG! Wine should not taste rusty and bitter. (80 pts.)
• 2007 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  So many of these bad wines coming out of Chateauneuf and they are absolutely taking us to the cleaners! Should subject these wines to extreme vetting to keep all this alcohol from reaching AMERICA. These wines are bitter and thin. (70 pts.)
• 2007 Domaine de la Graveirette Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Listen. I respect Chateauneuf du Pape. Nobody respects it more than I do. I have tremendous respect for it. This is a good wine. It has red fruit and also some acid. I know plenty of Chateauneuf that don’t have acid. This one has acid. It’s great. (83 pts.)
• 2007 Mas de Boislauzon Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Terrible wine. Tastes like rotting fruit, and such a nasty palate. Gasoline and rubber. Really bad. (60 pts.)

Sad.

I forgot the hashtag. And exclamation mark.

You shouldn’t respond to him. It only eggs him on. Besides these notes are a distraction so you won’t notice that he’s plowing under the Hermitage hill.

Lols.

(By him we mean Parker. Nothing to see here!)

Wait. Just saw sad on a note.

FWIW, CdP producers were all about this vintage, too. Maybe they were groveling?

(Seriously, when 09s were on deck, they were still talking about 07.)

Root day??

#MCGA

Fake pairings - terrible!

“Think of 2007 as a hypothetical blend of an opulent, powerful, sumptuous year such as 1990, and a cooler drought vintage such as 2001. The cool weather and the remarkable three weeks of Mistral in September that concentrated the grapes without any spikes of high heat appears to have given the 2007s an aromatic dimension and freshness that I have rarely witnessed. Combine that with wines that are substantial, powerful, and relatively high in alcohol, with super depth of fruit! These are very aromatic wines of great concentration, freshness, laser-like focus, and amazing purity as well as depth. It is the vintage of my lifetime for this region, and I don’t say that lightly. These 2007s will also be very long-lived given their extraordinary balance.” – Robert Parker

Funny…but I’d be curious to see what the wines of producers like Beaucastel & Vieux Telegraph are like in this company. I wonder if some producers were able to reign-in the vintage a bit?

I think you were supposed to tweet those notes out. Well done!

Terrific notes. You’re a guy that’s done a lot of terrific things and are getting more and more recognition for it…I think.

And believe me, I know terrific.

I had a Pegau back on December that I thought was spectacular. A little odd the first day, but the second day was very rewarding.

The only wine on the list that surprises me is the Mont Olivet. It’s the only one that is still holding to its traditional style. The rest are generally bad regardless of vintage, as they are no longer Chateauneuf du Pape, but rather Chateauneuf du Points.

As for the Roederer Estate, not surprising you found it too sweet. The dosage on their California wines is higher than good grower wines these days.

I think this is going to be an interesting thread. Quite honestly given hype and the style of vintage, I steered well clear, but I did have the Bonneau Celestins which was very good, but the weakest of the three in a vertical 2004, 2005 and 2007. That being said, I am beginning to break the code, and I tend to buy less ripe vintages like 2004, which have the twin virtues of being better to my palate and considerably cheaper.

BTW, ditto Guigal Lalas.

Channeling your inner Trump??

Have you been spending time with Bill Klapp by any chance?

I’ve recently enjoy both beaucastel and VT from '07. They show the vintage but kept the ripeness and alcohol in check.
A recent '09 clos des papes was damn near undrinkable due to heat/alcohol.

The arc of many of these wines was manifestly apparent within 3-5 years, and I can only imagine how much worse some have become. This vintage of CDP was the “jump the shark” moment for me and this region, and I’m down to like 3 bottles of wine when at one point it was the second largest in my “cellar”. The only 07 that I have left is Clos des Papes and VT. I gave away lots of them to my father. I’m in agreement with Adrian here.

Sounds like we need a stiff tariff on these. Or maybe a wall along the French coast to contain their bad wines.

It was real. As I recall, it was in a post on his blog, The Hedonist’s Gazette.

PS: FWIW, I have enjoyed 2007 Donjon, Beaucastel and Pegau in the past year.