Chateauneuf Du Pape Vieux Telegraphe 2019

Châteauneuf Du Pape Vieux Télégraphe 'La Crau', Famille Brunier, Southern Rhone, France, 2019  

Grapes: 60% Grenache, 15% Mourvèdre, 15% Syrah and 5% Cinsault & 5% assorted others, 70 year old vines, hand-picked, partial destemming, fermented in both steel & wooden cuves, 20-22 months in French oak, bottled unfined & unfiltered

Producer Tasting Note:

Dense ruby/purple-tinged with an exquisite nose of salty sea breezes, liquorice, ground pepper, jammy black cherries, blackcurrants, figs, and plums, this is a full-bodied, rich, offering with lots of sweet, ripe tannin. It is surprisingly accessible for a Vieux Telegraphe (this wine normally shuts down several years after bottling), but it should have great longevity (25+ years) given its power, full-bodied mouth feel, and enormous length and richness.

Critics' Tasting Notes:

"The 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape La Crau is a hugely successful vintage, marked by scents of sun-warmed stones, garrigue, black cherries and black olives. Full-bodied, rich and velvety, it finishes with tremendous length and softly dusty tannins, which should help ensure a long, positive evolution."

96+/100 points, Joe Czerwinski, WINE ADVOCATE, May 2022

"Dark cherries, plums, garrigue, pepper, and kirsch create the nose. Rich, lush, polished, and silky with length, energy, and freshness, the sweetness in the kirsch, with its spice-box, peppery herbs, and cherries with a touch of mint-leaf lingers on the palate. Produced from a blend of 60% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 15% Mourvedre, and 5% Cinsault, along with other, assorted red and white grape varieties. 60-70% of the harvest is destemmed. Drink from 2024-2040."

96/100 points, Jeff Leve, THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER, October 2022

Also awarded Wine Spectator Top 100 #71 in 2022

Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe does indeed derive its name from an old telegraph station, one which was once sited on the hill where this Châteauneuf domaine now stands

The Vieux Télégraphe vineyards are unusual in that they lie in a single block, on the La Crau plateau, today covering an area of 70 hectares. The ground is covered by the galets roules, the large rounded stones which originated in the Alps to the east, and were transported down to lower lands by the action of floodwaters. They are classically associated with the vineyards of Châteauneuf du Pape, although they can also be found in other areas across the south of France. Beneath these stones there is a more organic soil, up to 1.5m deep, a molasse deposited here during the Miocene era, and then deeper again there is a red clay. The vines average an impressive 50 years of age, with a significant proportion old enough to draw their pension at 65 years.

Food Match: Drink with spicy lamb or chicken dishes, strong cheeses.