'05 Pegau - 3L

I found a bottle of Domaine de Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Reservee 2005 3Liter for $329. It feels like a good deal, I like Pegau, but it is really hard to justify an event where I will need 4 bottles of CdP. Do I get a few and hold them in the cellar for event I don’t know about or is the big bottle crush just a pass?

TW

You will have plenty of time for the '05, slow maturing vintage (for my taste). I wouldn’t open a 3L for at least 5 years. Enjoy.

I like the big bottles. Lots of fun when you have a bunch of people over to your house/apt or a big group at a restaurant. The big bottle is always a hit with the crowd…

I would love a huge bottle like this for my family thanksgiving or Xmas dinner gatherings. CDP is an easy sell!

Look for an 04 or an 06. 05 has a hard tannic edge that I am not optimistic it will lose. Remember the 95 and beware.

I barely find opportunities to open the magnums I have, can’t imagine a 3L. These days I’d much rather open several different wines than one big bottle of the same. YMMV.

Like others have said, large family gatherings are perfect occasions to open large formats and a 3L would be great for, say, a dozen people. Buy it.

You “found” it, so you haven´t purchased it yet?

I cannot help you with an opportunity to open it, but what I´ve got to say:
I have a lot of Pegau of almost every vintage and every cuvée ever produced, I have a few mags but not a single 3 L bottle.
I wouldn´t know when to open it, too.
But some people like to have a lot of wine, nothing wrong with that.

However, the 2005 is barely fully mature in 0.75s - so I would at least wait another 10 years, better 15y.
The price seems to be good though.
I agree that other vintages in double mags would be a better choce for NOW. I would love to have a 1981, 1985/89/90 in a mag … or a 1994 or 1998 …

These big formats have all been filled, corked, labelled and waxed manually - they don´t fit in any machine …

Holiday parties also seem like a good place for a 3L

commercial post: I import Pegau to most of the U.S.

I agree that this is a tough, tannic vintage that will age almost forever in a large format.

Two possibilities:

  1. Buy and hold with the idea that a Special Occasion will Occur in the next 10 - 20 years, and it will be glorious.
  2. Plan to crack it open when you have at least 4 - 6 people to get through half of it. The remaining half should be good or maybe better (especially if refrigerated) for at least a few days after opening. And/or you can have clean empty bottles handy when you open it. Fill two or three of them, put decent corks in them and enjoy one at a time over the next week or two.

I do this a lot with big formats as I own more of them than I need. I buy them for use at my sales meetings, then realize that a basic Mondavi Napa Pinot Noir I’ve been hoarding at 20+ years of age really should get drunk and is not in the queue for next year’s meeting. So we have another couple over, I decant 2 bottles out of the 3L and put them aside. We enjoy the other 1.5L with dinner and everybody is happy. Of course, in this example, I drink the remaining bottles over just a few days as they won’t hold up like an '05 Pegau.

Dan Kravitz

I’d buy it, and as Dan says, drink half night before Thanksgiving and rest at Thanksgiving dinner.