Thanks to Leonard Fox who brought this to our dinner at Allegretti on Tuesday! I thought I had included it in the notes on that post but it seems to be missing. Deserves its own thread in any event.
1998 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (11/5/2009)
Wow what a treat! Opaque purple color Dark and brooding. Intense nose of spices, graphite, and dirt. The fruit is still huge, with notes of black raspberry and blackberry followed by more licorice, black pepper, and earth. This showed quite well, but could still improve over the next 3-5 years and should drink well over the next decade. (94 pts.)
Read some unsettling notes recently on this after I had a stunning bottle last October (which prompted me to go out and buy more!), glad to see you had a killer experience!
VD made a fine Chateauneuf in 1998. Certainly one of the better 1998 bottling’s along with other affordables such as the basic Beau, Pegau & VT. I’m still not convinced with other’s wines in this very hot year.
When it is a good bottle the '98 Vieux Donjon is an awesome wine. Had 4 in the past 12 months and only one was spectacular though. The others were all lesser bottles and odd thing is that 3 were from the same case including the great one.
I had 4bot of my own put away and all were badly cooked. I thought I had taken good care of them so I fear they could have been affected further up the chain. This bottle was in fantastic shape.