2001 | Tardieu-Laurent | Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Speciale

Bright medium ruby. Musky, slightly rustic aromas of roast coffee and chocolate. Liqueur-like surmaturite in the mouth; thick but with enlivening vinosity. Shows an intriguing iron nuance to go with the roasted garrigue character.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: A debut offering, the 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes Cuvee Speciale was fashioned with 100% stems from 75-80 year old Grenache vines from the appellation’s eastern sector known as La Crau. This 1,000-case cuvee boasts a black/blue/purple color. While closed, it reveals tremendous concentration along with a formidable assortment of flavors including ripe figs, creme de cassis, chocolate, melted licorice, espresso, and earth. Full-bodied, magnificently concentrated, and pure, with reserves of power, it has the potential to be magical, but patience will be a virtue given its backwardness at present. It’s hard to believe this wine has close to 16% natural alcohol, but that component is completely concealed by the level of concentration.

• Wine Cellar: Bright medium ruby. Musky, slightly rustic aromas of roast coffee and chocolate. Liqueur-like surmaturite in the mouth; thick but with enlivening vinosity. Shows an intriguing iron nuance to go with the roasted garrigue character. The "regular" old-vines bottling is more aristocratic, while this is more traditional, rustic Chateauneuf, but with uncanny sweetness and depth of flavor. Finishes with huge tannins that will require several years of bottle aging. This cuvee was more raisiny, with more of a figgy character from dried grapes, noted Tardieu, and thus he couldn't combine it with the rest of the old-vines juice.

Producer Information

Tardieu-Laurent is a French négociant enterprise known for the consistently high quality of its wines, which come from the Rhône Valley and from other parts of southern France. It was set up in 1994 by Dominque Laurent and Michel Tardieu, though is now run solely by the latter. The company has no vineyard holdings. Rather, it buys young wines, which are then matured and blended before bottling. Despite this, Tardieu-Laurent is very much an artisan producer – around 20 barrels only are made of each wine every year. While the cellars are located in the Luberon, the wines fall under various red and white Rhône appellations, including Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Cornas and Côtes du Rhône. Tardieu-Laurent also make a Tavel rosé and a red Bandol. The wines are all aged in small oak barrels, often with 100 percent new oak, and are bottled without fining or filtration. The wines often show creamy notes from the oak, though Michel Tardieu insists his intention is to showcase the fruit and express a sense of place for each appellation.

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