Mourre du Tendre, Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Nez oranges, legumes, poivrons… Tres concentre, tannin present, longueur 30 sec.

light red to red color. This is fully mature. On the nose a mild amount of VA consistent with the region. Good concentration and length. Fruit is still there but secondary note predominate. Maybe a hint of oxidation but extremely mild.

Garnet hue. Nose of earth, garrigue, pepper, floral notes. Fully integrated on the palate with layers of soft red and black plum cut with earth and stone with additional elements of white pepper and tampenade. Lower acidity and dusty tannin, leading to a long, gentle finish of red fruit, garrigue, and brier. Lots of positive comments from the peanut gallery and it paired very well with BBQ chicken from the grill.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1998 (Chez moi) : I still remember the bottle I brought to restaurant Le Sommelier a couple of years ago, and how gutted I was to find, that mybottles had vanished from the cellar; allready then so elegant, vibrant cool and intense. Also tonight in grown up company, it is quite special; burned rubber, yet light, nervous, a bit herbal, but charming & light. You have to wait for these wines...

Drinking well now. Pretty smooth right out the bottle with limited decanting

At first the wine was a little closed aromatically, giving only away some sweet cherry scents. After an hour the wine opened op considerably with wonderful scents of fresh blackberries, blackberry leaves and herbes de provence. The wine is a medium bodied, more elegant style of CdP without many tannins and dominated by cherries and blackberries. It is however a little dry on the finish which is propably due to the extensive elevage time. Overall a very nice bottle of …

A few wines at a cassoulet cook off. (Chris Wilford's) : A very nice, classique, grenachey CDP. Rustic in the right way, chunky in texture with pretty black fruit, licorice, garrigue and game, it’s started to take on some nice secondary development. It went quite nicely with the cassoulet. A-.

really a strange showing here, and controversial at the table... very plush in texture but the acid was odd and so was the fruit... maybe issues with the barrels? Would have liked to have tried it later... it had been opened three hours prior.

Bottle stored in cool conditions since purchase. Removing the lead foil revealed a tiny bit of cork protrusion, the cork was stained all the way to the top. The wine was deep purple in color, though, and the nose was full of healthy garrigue, leather, red fruit, and gamey smells. The palate was remarkable for lots of sweet gooseberry and strawberry notes, so sweet that we ended up using it as a dessert wine after dinner to accompany the cheeses! …

OK wine, but I exepcted a lot more for the price. Has a lot of ass on the nose when opened, and dosftened after a while, but it seemed disjointed. Maybe another 5 years it will come together