NYT on 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape

Asimov and tasting panels observations on the wines and how the region has moved away from the “ultraripe” (which to me is a very good thing).

//www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/dining/drinks/wine-review-chateauneuf-du-pape-2016.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ffood&action=click&contentCollection=dining&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

This is another one of those cases where Asimov talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. He says he wants less ripe, less alcoholic Cdp. And he compares 16 to 07, a vintage that is an anomaly. He would have done better to compare it to the 10, with which it has a lot in common. His panel then has as its top wine a Cambie special cuvee and has the list littered with domaines that tend toward the ripe and soft tannined such as Mordoree and Janasse. And I would be very surprised if any of the wines he tasted were less than 14.5%, with some number of them certainly being 15% (virtually a post-global-warming condition of existence in CdP). I have said on other threads, one can still find traditionally made CdP, but, with the exception of Beaucastel, VT and Ferrand, the names on this list wouldn’t be my nominees. I wonder which wines they tasted didn’t make it.

I read the article, and it was interesting how he panned the riper CdP’s of the past, but noted that pretty much all of these wines were at least 14.5%, and most went above 15%. Now don’t get me wrong - I find nothing wrong with many Grenaches and Grenache-based wines being in the high 14s or higher - if you want to show off the ‘full expanse’ of what that variety can offer, the grapes need to get riper so that the skins begin to soften.

The question - are these wines that different than the past or are they being ‘made’ in a way that is curtailing their ripeness somehow but still offering something special? And how many of these are doing stem inclusion - something that is certain to add more earthiness and perhaps a touch of herbaceousness to ‘round out’ these blends?

Cheers.

The thing that turned me off a lot of recent CdP is not ripeness and heat, but that many had an very overripe, roasted fruit quality. It was first prominent in many 2003s, but then seemed to become much more common. I haven’t had the wines in Asimov’s article. But, if they lost that quality and had more of the savory side of CdP they would be more enjoyable to me even if still ripe and 14.5-15.5% abv.

-Al

In my experience with Janasse (mainly Chaupin, but some VV, too), and especially the 2007s, I would not characterized them as “soft-tannined.” I found tannins in the 2007 Chaupin in particular quite hard.

Analytically, I sincerely doubt they are meaningfully different.

I quite liked the article. Sure, I was surprised how many modern wines snuck into his tops picks, but to your point, his #1 wine was not destemmed which he noted. I appreciated that he is noting many wines are moving away from the oversized style that was more popular 10 years ago.

I won’t speak for Larry, but my point, perhaps poorly expressed, was twofold: 1)16 is a more balanced vintage, but winemaking hasn’t really changed that I can see and 2)his panel’s tasting results don’t confirm that he really doesn’t like te modern style in CdP.

To this point, then, is this simply a matter of ‘vintage variation’ where Mother Nature dealt a set of cards that produced ‘more balanced’ wines in 2016 than say a few years earlier?

Or is it that these are being looked at ‘with different eyes’ but the wines are actually not that different?

I think ‘ripeness’ in varieties like Grenache can be ‘misleading’. ‘Higher alcohol’ in Grenache will not always come across as ‘overly ripe’ - this variety to me is very similar to Zinfandel in that manner.

Cheers.

Does '16 pair well with sushi?

Don’t just leave that hanging- only en magnum!

I think the core issue is that a lot of the wines that do well in big blind panel tastings (like Cambie ones) may not keep as well as others which tradeoff a little jam/richness on release, for some balance over the long haul.

It’s likely to me much harder for a regular consumer to put together horizontals at age 10 or 15 to see how things have really developed, and maybe normal folks don’t wait that long anyways.

Personally I find the benefit to aging CNDP to be among the most striking of any region.

I enjoyed the article for its writing. Garrigue is back. It’s another word for, We couldn t wait for flavor ripeness so we have a bunch of vegetal flavors we pass off as terroir. Leathery…does this mean brett?? East coast wine writers love brett, hate oak.

Jonathan’s comments remind me of a notion that I have about some wine writers, that they taste intellectually ie, what conforms to their theories is good. But then what they like doesn’t always jibe with their theories.

I once got a semi famous contrarian writer to say that he really liked the Marcassin I poured for him.

Perhaps I should have said, northeast coast writers as there was a Maryland writer who liked our oak treatments. I miss him a lot!!
Indeed there are writers here who are a lot like the ones back East…It is funny how some writers will forgive screeching levels of acidity and brett but not oak or high alcohol.