Wine Advisor
Alain Jaume, Domaine Grand Veneur Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes 2007
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
(50% grenache, 40% mourvedre and 10% syrah) Bright purple. Exotically perfumed bouquet of ripe raspberry, boysenberry and cherry, with complicating notes of cola, sassafras and star anise. Deep, juicy dark fruit flavors provide impressive palate coverage and are braced by zesty minerality. The dark berry and cola notes resonate on the long, focused finish. This is already appealing but seems built to age. (Kysela Pere et Fils, Winchester VA
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Saturated purple. Stunning bouquet of mineral-laced raspberry, boysenberry and potpourri, with a strong note of licorice emerging with air. Deep and sweet but energetic, showing powerful red and black fruit flavors and a strong underpinning of graphite and iron. The boysenberry note recurs on the finish, which is strikingly pure, focused and long.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The newest special cuvee (introduced in 2006) is the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes (50% Grenache, 40% Mourvedre, and 10% Syrah). Made from 50- to 100+-year-old vines and aged 18 months in small oak barrels, it is potentially one of the longest lived wines of the vintage. This exquisite, dense purple-colored effort reveals intense but restrained notes of cassis, kirsch, lavender, licorice, and graphite. A wine of great intensity as well as remarkable finesse and elegance, is a full-bodied Chateauneuf that will require plenty of patience. Give it 3-4 years of bottle age, and drink it over the following 25-30. This is one of the most ambitious estates as well as burgeoning negociant operations in Chateauneuf du Pape. The two Jaume brothers, Sebastien and Christophe, continue to ratchet up the level of quality with a bevy of brilliant Chateauneuf du Papes and for bargain hunters, some top-flight offerings that include generic Cotes du Rhones as well as Cotes du Rhone-Villages. They also produce an impressive Gigondas. The estate wines, bottled under the name Domaine Grand Veneur, include two of the finest white Chateauneuf du Papes of the village (they own 5 acres of white grapes, a relatively large amount when only 3-4% of the appellation's production is in white wine). Importer: Kysela Pere et Fils, Winchester, VA; tel. (540) 722-9228
About the Producer
Vignobles Alain Jaume is a family-owned wine producer established in 1826 and based in the north of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape region at Domaine de Grand Veneur. The wine portfolio of Vignobles Alain Jaume is produced from a wide range of Southern Rhône appellations, with most reds based around Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. The latter two grapes are aged in French oak barrels, whilst the Grenache is matured in concrete tanks. The white Chateauneuf-du-Pape is a blend of Clairette and Roussanne, while Viognier is added for one Côtes-du-Rhône, and used on its own for the other. The vineyards of Grand Veneur and Domaine du Clos du Sixte in Lirac are certified organic.
