2001 Domaine de La Charbonniere "Vieilles Vignes" Chateauneuf-du-Pape (Pre-Arrival)

SKU #1080897 94 points Wine Spectator

This is all perfume and guile, with incense, warm fruitcake and black tea aromas providing a lilting feel, followed by supple, warm red currant confiture, raspberry and black cherry fruit notes that are seamlessly wrapped together and carried by gossamer-thread tannins. The long finish glides effortlessly. Beautiful. 2001 Châteauneuf-du-Pape non-blind retrospective (November 2011). Drink now through 2021. (11/ 2011)

92 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Vieilles Vignes is a wine of precision, finesse, and elegance as opposed to pure power and intensity. Made from 80-year old Grenache (95% of the blend, with 5% Mourvedre), it emerges from a rock-strewn sector called Le Crau. Ninety percent is aged in neutral wood foudres and 10% in small casks. Like all the Charbonniere offerings, it is bottled unfiltered. Aromas of sweet and sour cherries, strawberries, pepper, spice box, and lavender are accompanied by a medium to full-bodied, elegant, pure wine with tremendous symmetry and balance. As I said last year, if the sexy, delicate French actress Sophie Marceau were a Chateauneuf du Pape, this would be it. Drink it over the next 14-15 years. (2/ 2004)

92 points Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar

Bright red-ruby. Blackberry and cassis fruit aromas complicated by exotic spices, mocha and cola. Dense, thick, silky and seamless; at once plush and sharply delineated. Very concentrated, pliant Chateauneuf du Pape with excellent lift: very 2001 in style. (2/ 2004)

K&L Notes

95% Grenache, 5% Mourvedre.