2005 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau

Fill to within half an inch of the cork bottom, cork barely stained 1mm- this bottle is in excellent shape. The wine is ruby purple with a watery pink rim. It looks young, though is just a touch paler than I would expect for a CdP.

The nose is very fruit forward and sweet. Raspberry sauce, strawberry jam, concord grapes, blood orange. There are also some aromas of dried Italian herbs and lavender. Soft on the palate, very fine tannins, medium bodied, acidity is medium as well. It is still fruit forward in the mouth, but less of the stewed sweet red fruit profile that was so apparent on the nose. In the mouth, it has a bit more of a savory and bitter profile of orange and grapefruit pith, a touch of ruby red grapefruit juice, and some cranberries. The flavors of dried mixed herbs (thyme, basil, sage) carry on the palate.

It’s wonderful in the mouth until the finish. There is a weird rubbery flavor that I can only describe as…get ready because this is a weird one…balloon animal. When I was a kid, I went through a phase of learning how to make balloon animals, and in the process, spent lots of time with the end of balloons in my mouth. I learned that distinctive plastic-y rubber taste well. Sometimes the balloons would blow air right into my mouth and it also had a very distinctive taste, and that is coming at the back end of this wine. Decanting didn’t get rid of it. Too bad, because otherwise I really like this.

Nobody else mentioned the balloon thing on CellarTracker, so it might just be particular to this bottle (or my taste buds), so I wouldn’t hold it against the wine if are considering buying it or you have it in your cellar. It’s incredibly well made, and given its amazing youth at 16 years old, it will easily make it to 25.