| 2008-04-25 09:40 |
IWC:
By Josh Raynolds
Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (Issue #136, January/February 2008)
(Cuvee du Vatican Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Sixtine Reserve) ($59) Ruby-red. Cherry-vanilla, cassis and mocha aromas are sharpened by dusty minerality and fresh rose. Velvety red fruit flavors display excellent depth, picking up bitter cherry and dark chocolate on the finish. Shuts down with air, suggesting that this will need some cellar time. (Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ) 92(+?) points |
| 2008-04-25 09:41 |
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 |