2003 Chateauneuf du Pape

A wine I’ve been lucky enough to have numerous times recently, the 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de La Reine des Bois is gorgeous. Quite possibly the wine of the vintage, it shows thrilling levels of blackberry, licorice, toasted bread, and garrigue to go with a full-bodied, massive, yet layered and seamless feel on the palate. There’s none of the rusticity or coarse tannin that’s common in the vintage, and it possesses beautiful purity, sweetness of fruit and length. Drink it over the coming 2-4 years. As I wrote in the intro for this domaine last year, Domaine de la Mordoree is a reference point estate for Chateauneuf du Pape. Run by the talented brother duo of Fabrice and Christophe Delorme, with Christophe making the wines, they produce a relatively modern-styled Chateauneuf, as well as more than noteworthy Liracs and Tavels. For this tasting at the domaine (I was also able to taste through this full lineup again, from bottles in the U.S.), we started with the older vintages and worked toward the more current releases. In addition to their Reine des Bois cuvee, the Delorme brothers also release a special cuvee call the Cuvee de la Plume du Peintre. It’s made only in top vintages, and, as of today, it’s only been made in 2003 and 2005. There’s a scant 150 cases of each. Coming from a plot of 80-year-old vines located in the famed La Crau lieu-dit, the blend has changed between the two releases, as has the elevage. Importer: Fran Kysela, Kysela Pere et Fils, Winchester, VA; tel. (540) 722-9228; fax (540) 722-9258

The 2003 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois shows an amazingly dark and completely opaque color along with a to die for nose of raspberries, cassis, licorice, violets and integrated smoky wood notes. With air, minerals and subtle spice notes start to emerge and even for being so ripe and young, there's lots of complexity and this is not a monolithic fruit bomb. The palate actually started out slightly disjointed and showed excessive, bitter tannins but after 7 hours of being open, everything came together and is simply stunning. Full bodied and powerful with ripe, rich fruit. The texture is definitely on the heavy side but there is so much fruit and structure underneath all the fruit. This finishes very long with substantial, sweet tannins. This is more powerful than the 2000 (but not as open and lush) and not as seamless as the 2001. This was double decanted at 1 O'Clock and left in the cellar with the cork out until 7 O'clock and then consumed over the evening. This seems almost impervious to air and more time would have been better.

Inky violet color. Rich, smoky and deep on the nose, with powerful scents of chocolate, creme de mure and kirsch, tinged by candied violet and cracked pepper. Concentrated and lush, with a round, velvety texture and abundant sweet plum, blackberry and mocha flavors. Finishes with ripe, round tannins, a very sweet note of cassis, and great length.