The view from the castle ruins
AdVINEtures recently spent 5 days in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the historic and beautiful wine region of France’s Southern Rhone Valley. The region is rich in history and the wines that it produces can be among the very best in France and the world. This primer will provide some of the background information about this region and will give some context to the future articles that we will be publishing about the wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
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2005 Woodward Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon Artist Series #14
Dark red with only the slightest fade at the rim. Gorgeous nose of crème de cassis, blackberry and cedar hits your nose when it is well above the glass. Dark fruit flavours are joined by mocha and baking spices delivered in a full bodied style with tannin and oak that are both present but well integrated. Wonderful velvety texture and mouth feel that can only be achieved after long aging. 30 second+ finish. Seems to be at peak right now, but could easily go another 5 years.
Excellent/Extraordinary
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As wine enthusiasts, deciding which wine region to visit first in France proved far more challenging than expected. Of course, the usual suspects came to mind almost immediately – Bordeaux, Burgundy, or Champagne? Certainly each are more than worthy for consideration and places we absolutely intend to visit, but we ended up choosing the lesser known village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape largely because it has quickly become one of our favourite wine regions. What we also discovered from our sojourn was a charming village that afforded the perfect getaway to immerse ourselves in local French living.
2002 Pol Roger Extra Cuvee de Reserve
Since 1849 Pol Roger has been making some of Champagne’s finest wines and is now one of the premier Grande Marques. Golden colour with lively mousse. The nose is a lovely combination of warm bread dough backed up with notes of lemon zest and slight floral tones. The palate is wonderfully smooth and rich with a slight honey character to provide a counter-point to the lemon and grapefruit notes. This is a significant step above their NV Brut and well worth the relatively small premium in price. 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay from Montaigne de Reims and Cote de Blancs.
Excellent+ – $102 tax-in at BC Liquor Stores
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Restaurante José Maria sits on the Plaza Mayor in the town of Segovia in Spain. Segovia is a spectacularly beautiful city about 50 km North of Madrid. In 1985 it was declared a World Heritage Site. We ended up in Segovia as the first stop on the Fine Vintage Tour of Ribera del Duero and Rioja. And what a first stop it was! We kidded our tour guides that they had peaked early, that they could not possibly keep up this quality of food and wine over the week in front of us.
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