Exploring Chateauneuf du Pape Wines
ESB is taking a deep dive into Chateauneuf du Pape wines (white and red) with a selection curated by our own longtime member Henry Chaney. We will be tasting through several flights of old world Rhone wines comparing the different blends, producers, subregions and age. The educational tasting will be accompanied by delicious appetizers, great company and a world class education. So let’s get smart(er)!
The experience…
We will start off with a tasting of a white Chateauneuf to get the palettes going. Then the exploration will go down in flights, 5 reds and maybe a bonus.
Flight 1 will compare a 2017 Cote du Rhone with a 2017 broadly blended CDP [85/5/5/5: GSM & other], to distinguish the differences. For all three of these wines, we will pour from a single producer, for consistency.
Flight 2 will then highlight the blends themselves with the use of two of Domaine da Cristia’s 2017 wines, one being 100% Grenache, the other 60/30/10 GMS. There are relatively few 100% Grenache CDPs and those that produce them don’t always do it every year.
The 2017 vintage is a strong one and even those these wines are young that can be brought around after a decant. There are also stylistic differences between these two flights, that adds to our group discussion.
Flight 3 we will feature an older vintage, the 2010 Pegau to show how bottle age improves the wine. The Pegau is a traditionally made [not de-stemmed], a third stylistic difference, but the blend is close to Guigal’s.
