TN: 2005 Pape Clement

[k_s_h_i_n]

John,
This is my input based on your response to Justin.

My favorite wine region is Burgundy and I enjoy Loire wines so I can relate to your position in this matter. Now days, I don’t think people look for 20+ years of ageability.
When I taste young wines, I completely agree that the balance is the key and that is what I look for. However, I think it is extremely difficult to differentiate whether the fruit concentration is coming from good husbandry in the vineyards or comes from various winemaking approaches in the cellar when you have to evaluate. In order to do this, you have to spend three or four days observing how the wine reacts with air and the core fruit expression.

IMO, the 05 Pape Clement is very modern flush wine but it still carries the core fruit component that comes from the vineyard. As I stated, this will not be a wine that you have to wait 20+ years to enjoy but most wine drinkers will enjoy them at the initial release for the fancy fruit and oak and perhaps may be at 7+ years with additional secondary and slight tertiary characters.

[Keith_Levenberg]

@Kevin Shin

@Keith Levenberg

Just to be clear, I didn’t suggest the 2000 was dead, only that if you enjoy this kind of wine, there is a very good probability that you will not enjoy it at any point in the future as much as you enjoyed it 5 years ago.

Keith,
Are you saying that the 2000 PC now is not as good as five years ago? Any high end Bordeauxs at age four are really awkward so I dont get your point.

No, that’s a given of course. The issue is that the characteristics of Pape-Clement which appeal to its fans are characteristics which are exclusively features of young wine, the gobs of fruit and explosive oak toast. If those mellow with age it is possible that people who liked the old Pape-Clements will still enjoy the current ones when they are mature, but the people who prefer the style of the current ones would have been much happier drinking them on release.