89 / A-
Tasted by Mike Supple - 14 Feb 2008
Dark purple core with a tinge of pink on the rim. A bit reductive on the nose, but gives way to blueberry, raspberry, black cherry and lighter strawberry aromas after a few minutes. Cedar spice, leather and slate support the dark fruits. On the palette the wine is medium to full bodied leading to fairly bold tannic structure on the finish. Perfumed notes of baby powder and rose petals lead to plum and black cherry on the mid-palate with a darker finish of cedar, leather, wet earth and slate.
This wine takes a very long time to show its true value right now. It needs to be open for several hours before being agreeable, but once open for a couple of days the aromas and flavors really started to come out. Good quality wines from Chateauneuf often cost a lot of money. This is priced very reasonably and will be a very good wine with another 3 or so years in the bottle. However, if you don’t have that patience, pour it into a decanter (or any large pitcher with space for oxygen) and give it several hours.
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Tags: blueberry, cedar, Chateauneuf, Chateauneuf du Pape, cherry, cinsault, clos, Clos de l'Oratoire, france, grenache, leather 2005, mike supple, mourvedre, oratoire, Pape, raspberry, red wine, Rhone, rose, rouge, Southern, strawberry, Syrah, wine
