| 2008-07-25 12:17 |
'WA: Inky/dense purple to the rim, the 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve Sixtine offers up scents of creme de cassis, pain grille, resiny pine forest, roasted herbs, and pepper. Full-bodied, rich, meaty, and deep, it is a structured, masculine, full-bodied Chateauneuf that should be at its peak between 2012-2025.
The young Jean-Marc Diffonty offers two different styles of Chateauneuf du Pape. The basic cuvee is a more typical than the Reserve Sixtine, which is a combination of 50% Grenache and the rest various proportions of Syrah and Mourvedre, with the latter two components spending time in barriques. The Reserve Sixtine often needs 4-5 years of bottle age to integrate the wood component and display its Provencal typicity. Having purchased and followed Diffonty’s early bottlings of the Reserve Sixtine, I can say they do become very Provencal in character at about age 5-7. Moreover, in the top vintages, they possess twenty or more years of aging potential.
Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173 |