Nose > Big black cherry, blueberry, roasted chestnut, smoky/creamy.
Fat, rich, & very black & wild fruity.
Rose, red minerals, raspberry, wild, red & black cherry come out with an hours air.
On the palate > Big, rich, wild black cherry, cherry bark, roasted chestnut.
Medium amount of firm, but rich tannins.
Finish is medium long sage & lavender spicy.
A little barrel funk, but no Brett.
92 Points (I’d call the nose ~ 94 Points, & the Palate ~ 89 Points)
Medium (at best) intensity is the disappointment here.
Very pretty, luscious Grenache, & fairly complex nose is, by far, the best part of this wine.
Mildly disappointing on the whole, really.
Doubt this will hold it’s fruit for that long, & don’t see any reason to hold very long - unless you dislike fruit.
Disappointing to hear (comment based on your notes, not on the score). I had a similar lackluster experience two nights ago with the '07 Vieux Telegraphe. Too bad, as VT and Beaucastel are my typical faves in CDP.
I had both recently and I agree with the VT being lackluster, I was very disappointed, however I found the Beaucastel to be outstanding and maybe even the most appealing Beaucastel to my palate.
Some good vintages of Beaucastel have been difficult to taste when they were young, like 86 and 95. Others were great all the way through, like 85 and 89. Beaucastel is so good when it’s aged that I no longer want to kill any bottles early to see, I just treat it like I do Bordeaux, and lock it up.
It is not unusual for CdP to go through a dumb phase where they don’t show well only to re-emerge later. That is why I don’t drink CdP young. I prefer it with 8-15 years of age. YMMV.
Old, funky barrels is where that particular funk comes from.
It is one of the facts of winemaking. Old barrels invariably get funky, no matter how well they are taken care of. Bacteria & fungus get into the wood, little by little.
To some = complexity; to others = flaw. C’est la vie . . .
Had a discussion about this in one of the German wine threads, as it doesn’t seem to impact Fuder raised Riesling as much. Not a “fair” comparison really. The Fuders are 4X as big; lower pH wine is going into them; colder cellars; (prob) higher SO2’s, etc.
I have not had the Beaucastel 07, but I’ve had a number of 07s since this past summer that have quite pointedly closed down. In the case of Charvin, which I had recently at Charvin, this is promising a much better wine as the overlay of 07 fruit has receded and the wine is starting to taste like a Charvin, young and vibrant. Others equally, have given me the impression that this vintage may turn out more interesting and less monolithic than one might have thought at first.
It’s likely that Beaucastel is losing its baby fat and the question is what will be left. I should say that I’ve never had a Beaucastel, even from bad years, that wasn’t better at 10 years old than at 4 or 5, so I expect whatever the final verdict on the wine will be (is there ever one), it hardly needs to be drunk up. But again, I haven’t tasted this one, and there could be a first time for everything.
Barrel stink usually disappears after a few minutes of air in the glass and I have seen wines of most every type exhibit it. If it sticks around, you are usually dealing with a different issue.
Sounds like you’re talking about something different. A reductive wine, possibly? That would open up with some air.
That is not the case here. Barrel funk does not blow off. As I stated, this Beaucastel has some barrel funk. A nice way of saying bacteria (et al.) that have invaded the barrel, have flavored the wine by “flavoring” the barrels it’s been aged in.
This funk is part of this wines aroma/flavor profile, til death do it part.
Just wanted to clear that up.
And - ahem - for the record, I wasn’t the one who called this a wine flaw. lol
. . . although I’m not a big fan, & it ain’t terroir.
Most of them tasted best last year. But I had a 2007 Domaine Giraud CdP Cuvvee Tradition on Christmas eve and it was phenomenal. I haven’t yet tasted the 2007 Beaucastels, but if I had some I’d probably hold onto it. But then again I like Beaucastels with age regardless of vintage.
My note didn’t mean to imply '07 Beaucastel needed to be drunk now. But - It is less concentrated, & intense than most vintages of Beaucastel (especially considering the vintage), & that being the case, the primary fruit just won’t hold nearly as long.
I enjoy drinking my reds a good deal younger than many on this board, it seems. More complexity, richness, & softness are not an acceptable trade-off for (at least) some primary fruit to me.
Wines with More mid-palate intensity hold this fruit longer as they age.
I would happily trade any 2007 Beaucastel I had (thankfully, this was a single bottle purchase) for some of the vintages better performers at, & under its price-point.
Beaucsatel gets it’s ass kicked in '07 by the Raymond Usseglio Cuvee Imperiale (this is a WOW wine), the Vieux Donjon, & the Tardieu-Laurent V.V. to name a few clearly superior I’ve tasted this year.
I couldn’t agree more, though I think it’s more like 15 years and after, for a good vintage. From the comments above, it sounds like the VT (and the Beaucastel, but I didn’t buy or try any) has entered its dumb stage. There is nothing to do but wait this out and don’t have any until it is 15+, i.e. 2022 and after. That is what I will do with my case. I am 100% confident this wine will be beautiful with that age, just like the '88 and '89 (and probably '90, but I don’t have any) are. Like the '07, those wines were firm and luscious on release, total blank nothings at 10, and simply wonderful at 18+. For what it’s worth, I didn’t think the '07 VT seemed all that controversial or unusual, just a really good, young vintage typical of the house.
Again: with red Chateauneuf, drink it young or drink it old. Do not drink it in between.
I think this may be a different strokes situation.I’ve never been a fan of either Tardieu-Laurent or Raymond Usseglio. And I stopped liking VD with the 2003–though, to be honest, I haven’t tried them after 06.
This is of lesser quality, & especially intensity (more dilute) than the '81, '85, '88, '89, & '90 so don’t expect it to behave exactly the same way.
If you like your Beaucastel at 15+, I’m sure you’ll like this as well. It’s just not quite up to any of those wines, & I expect it’s evolution to follow a shorter curve.
Agree with Jonathan. This is a different strokes thing, just in a slightly different context.
I have a bunch of bottles of 05 and 06 Beaucastel CdP. What would be a good age/time to begin trying them? I’m not impatient or in a hurry by any means, but I have a lousy sense for timing Rhone reds, so I’d appreciate some guideance if anyone wanted to offer it.
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