2007 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (2/6/2017)
Opened my last bottle because after the one the other night, I figured (read: knew) there’s nothing to lose. This was even worse than the previous one. I served this to a winemaker friend, and another guest, three of us total, all picking this apart. I started it around 62F (then followed for the next 90 minutes), we let it Audoze (mistake, just do a PnP, this fades out quickly). And again, the nose is the more interesting component here, but really that is not saying much. Porty, matted color of balsamic vinegar. Tonight’s aromas - hoisin, cola, cigar ash, raisin, port wine, some dirt (saw that once, never again, sigh), more cola, and more port wine. On the palate, medium-bodied, lifeless. Not fruitless, it’s there, it’s just way, way past it, so that all you get is a suggestion of where it was. This was good maybe five or more years ago (for what it is). Do not wait another day, it’s already in hospice. 14,0%. Drink 2011-2013. SELL
Audozed 2 hours, served non-blind. Held since release at 57F.
To lend some perspective (i.e. I really like the wines from Pegau. OK, mostly), here’s my note of 17 Jan., 2017 for the 2005:
Oh, gosh, I so rarely drink the wines of CdP any more, but if there was one reason to do so, it was tonight’s bottle. So much earth, such depth on the nose and also on the silken but full bodied palate, too. This continued to add complexity and intrigue right through to the final glass, some 2 hours after the cork was pulled (this was a PnP, and it worked just fine). Served with take-out pizza and pasta from Pitfire in L.A., this showed how versatile it is. While some might consider this on its own, it was when it was served with food that both jumped to the next level. Exciting, with features for the AFWE and the international crowd to enjoy it all the same. Drink thru 2029. highly recommended
Served non-blind. A very few EtOH notes provided the only nit to pick here, and a quick 60 minute timeout in decanter would have settled the issue just fine.
Matt, you’re probably already aware just how small the wine world is, and I know this is really reaching, but the 2005 I opened was one I’d brought from CO to open for a friend in Culver-del-Rey a few weeks ago. He went ga-ga, his first. This 07 has DNR on the toe already.
Pegau is one of the few 2007 that has just reached maturity… and it has a very very long life ahead… to my taste it is similar to the Pégau 1983 style!
2007 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (20-08-16)
Typical nose of farmyard, soy sauce, oriental spices, sandalwood… Taste of mineral, freshness, feminine, complex, a great Pégau!! (96 pts.)
2007 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (10-10-15)
This wine was very closed in it’s youth (I even had doubts about it…) but now it is fully open and singing!! Very pegau ripe and modern nose, oriental spices, bacon fat, licorice, herbes de Provence… Super delicate at start, but building up in the mouth, this is a great Pegau as I like them at their best. I can’t believe how this wine improved over the last years… I still learn about Chateauneuf every day (98 pts.)
My experience with CdP is more or less as follows:
There are a set of wines that don’t age particularly well, and it’s best to drink them very young (within a couple years of release) for their power, fruit, and usually soft tannin.
Then there are a set of wines that age well (my set is Beaucastel, VT, Pegau, Bonneau and Rayas). You can very happily drink them exactly as described above, but if you don’t, you should be careful about drinking them in middle age. For example, I felt 95 VT had a closed period from maybe 1999 to 2010, and since then it has been great. 1998 VT was even more troublesome and for me it is just now regaining its early potential. 1995 Pegau was another tough one, as was 1995 Beaucastel.
The other thing is that the aged style is very different than the young one. If what you really like in CdP is a dark, powerful wine with furry tannin, you should probably never age them. The older wines turn more toward the Rayas model: Lighter red and highly perfumed.
I have a few bottles of 2007 Pegau and I expect this would be about the worst time to drink them for my taste. I’m not sure if they will turn out well but I’ll wait quite a while to try them.
Craig, while not quite as high in points as Philippe, I have similar impressions of this fine Pegau, thus I do not consider it likely that Tim’s bottle should merely be passing through an awkward phase.
I have drunk close to a case of 2007 Pegau Reserve since its bottling in late 2009, and it is now in its (lovely) stage of early maturity.
By far the most likely reason for Tim’s dead(!) bottle is the fact that it has been heatdamaged, as so many thousands Grenache based wines do when they’re stored and transported somewhere between producer and consumer.
Tim, please do ask the producer to open a non-abused bottle for you (if you ever get the chance to visit the Domaine), or else I’m sure other generous wine lovers in the US will help you get a chance to rectify your conclusion of the state of the entire production
I’ve had 98 and 99 within the last couple years, and both were pretty nice wines.
As Peter says, heat damage can be a problem, but another issue is the fact that Pegau bottles in batches, and there is no master blend from which every bottle is made (at least this is how they used to do it, and certainly was the case for 2007). So depending on when/where you buy your bottles, they may be different than someone else’s.
You’re right about the different bottling batches in the past (2003 for instance was bottled in three takes - Nov. 2005, Jan. 2006 and April 2006), but the Feraud father/daughter team had rectified this situation by 2007 when they did just two batches, both within a very short time in Nov/Dec 2009.
They assured me that the two batches were indistinguishable, and I bought both of them to follow over time.
Up till now there’re completely identical…at least to this amateur.
I’m not sure I agree with that Peter. Read the notes on the 2008 vintage. There seems to be two different batches in that vintage. One batch has quite a bit of fizz/gas in it. None of mine did.
The info on bottling procedure I have from the horse’s own mouth.
The Ferauds simply claim that there’s no such issue anymore.
Could it be that the batch with flawed bottles was subjected to adverse conditions during transport, or were some of the flawed bottles tasted at the Domaine?
I agree with what was said above, that the Pegau wines can go through an awkward middle stage depending on the vintage. The description definitely sounds like heat damage and that totally sucks. I had the same thing happen to me with one of my batches of the 2003’s. It is unfortunate when it happens. I would highly encourage Tim to try another '07 Pegau from another source when he gets the chance. The 2007 Pegau wines are still young for my taste and they should be really glorious when they reach full maturity. The 95’s are drinking very well now, the perfume is captivating. Best of luck.
I have had several bottles of the 2007 in the last year and all have been wonderful. It is in a great place right now and far from being too “porty” or dead, at least that is the case for my palate. I anticipate that it will drink well for years to come, I hope I’m not wrong cause I’m still holding onto quite a few bottles.
In regards to the bottling of each vintage, I visited the domaine in November and they said that they are no longer bottling several different batches over a few months. I could be wrong, but I recall Didier saying something about how they contracted someone to come help them do all the bottling this past year. It’s a pretty small operation that they have so I can see the difficulties with bottling an entire vintage in a short amount of time.
Neal, I agree that brett is part of the package with Pegau, but brett in very small quantities will merely impart the wine with more complexity (at least to most tasters), if the brett infected wine is subjected to - even for a very short time - higher than 20 -25 degrees Celicius, the brett population will literally explode, however.
That’s why I always transport these wines myself directly from the producer to my cellar. Otherwise you might get the “roulette wheel kind of wine”
(98 pts.)![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}