What with Buzzini’s note of the Delas CdR, I thought that I should post a note on this.
2007 Delas Frères Châteauneuf-du-Pape Haute Pierre- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (12/20/2009)
Popped and poured to accompany lamb loin chops. I bought this on the recommendation of a wine merchant whose palate I respect. I understand that Parker rated this 92-94. Maybe it’s me, but the alcohol detracted from my enjoyment of this wine. The bottle shows 15%. I suspect that the real number is higher. Other than that, nice color, nice weight, nice nose (except for the ETOH). I ended up using half of a bottle for cooking. What with boiling out the ETOH, I suspect it will be a better cooking wine than drinking wine. Hopefully this is not the ETOH profile of typical 07 CdPs. Sparky does Chateauneuf?
Thanks for the TN, I have 6 of these and it looks like they will sit for a while. I’m still sticking with my strategy of drinking 07CDRs now and waiting for the 07CNDPs to mature somewhat
Good idea, although I doubt that excess alcohol is going to resolve over time. On the other hand, maybe it was my mood last night, and the next bottle will taste better to me.
I don’t see this bottling around much, and had put away a 2010 Delas ‘Haut Pierre’ [Chateauneuf du Pape] somewhat after release, finally pulling the cork a day or so ago. I poured it into a (new) gigantic Riedel 001 Magnum stem, which can in theory hold 995ml, but doesn’t fit on my stemware shelves without some delicate maneuvering, nor the dishwasher. The bouquet on this is meaty, savory, sweaty which leads to coffee and bitter almond flavors on the palate. These grapes are bought in from various partner growers, destemmed, fermented in concrete, and then raised in tonneau. Back in this era it was 2 parts grenache to 1 part syrah; now it’s mostly the former. There isn’t any sediment in glass or bottle, so perhaps it was scrubbed clean. 14% abv, still pretty dark in color, but I’d drink up. The chewy tannins don’t soften up over three days. This house is better known for their estates in the Northern Rhone, so those domain bottlings would be the ones to focus on. Maybe on opening I would have given this an A-, but I think after savoring this for a few nights, I’ll slot it into the B+ zone. LIkely better younger.
