2002 Chateauneuf du Pape

Henri Bonneau is thrilled with the quality he has achieved over recent vintages, save for the 2002 Chateauneuf du Pape, which will probably be sold off to negociants. As Bonneau said, it is a “vin de table,” which was not a compliment. A washed out, herbal, light ruby-colored effort, it is obviously a result of the disastrous floods that ruined this vintage in Chateauneuf du Pape. One of the controversies surrounding Henri Bonneau is what happened to those cuvees that were supposed to go into the Cuvee Marie Beurrier in 1998. Bonneau has maintained over the last several years that everything was so spectacular in 1998 that there would be no Marie Beurrier. But, he did bottle a tiny quantity prior to the harvest in 2004 to satisfy one of his European customers. However, I do not believe any of that wine will be allocated to America (unless it comes through the grey market) since so little was made, and the quality was so high in 1998 that all of the cuvees that fermented dry will be designated as Reserve des Celestins. That said, one never is quite sure what Henri Bonneau intends to do until the wine is in bottle. Readers should be prepared for just about anything. Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173