Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2020
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Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape is another winner from this team, and readers can’t go wrong here. Based on 75% Grenache, 10% each of Syrah and Mourvedre, with the balance Cinsault, it was partially destemmed and brought up all in foudre. This beauty just about jumps out of the glass with its Provençal aromatics of ripe cherries, ground pepper, saddle leather, garrigue, and spice. These carry to a medium to full-bodied wine that has the vintage’s charming, pure character front and center, yet still brings good mid-palate density and ripe tannins.
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James Suckling
Excellent depth of black fruits, but the Mediterranean herb aromas dominate the fruit. Then the concentrated and very structured palate sweeps you away in a gentle and sensual way. Wonderful interplay of ripeness and expertly crafted fine tannins through the long, elegant finish. A cuvee 75% grenache, 10% syrah, 10% mourvedre and 5% cinsault that were co-fermented, then matured in foudre.
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Wine Spectator
Enticing and pretty, this boasts a pure beam of raspberry, rooibos tea and singed garrigue, with notes of baking spices and dried lavender. A pretty yet substantial wine, with chalky tannins lining the finish. Vibrant and fresh, with good drive. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault. Drink now through 2032.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Vieux Donjon's 2020 Chateauneuf du Pape is a balanced, harmonious effort that offers up pretty aromas of strawberries, raspberries and cherries, accented by hints of crushed stone and dusty earth. It's full-bodied and supple, with a long, silky-textured finish. Richer and riper than the 2021, it shows great harmony and texture. Tasted twice (once blind), with consistent notes.
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Le Vieux Donjon, as it exists today, was created in 1979 with the marriage of Lucien and Marie José Michel. Both Lucien and Marie José's parents owned vineyards in the region, and those holding were combined to form Le Vieux Donjon. The domaine covers fourteen hectares of vineyards (all farmed organically), thirteen planted to red grapes and one planted to white. The Michel's holdings are primarily in the North and Northwest of the AOC, but they also have small plots in the Southwest and East. Their most important parcel is Pialons, and the grapes from the 2008 come from that parcel as well as those in Cabrieres, Bois de Boursan, Les Marines and Le Mourre de Gaude. The soils are mainly limestone and clay, and are studded with the famed galets roulé, the round, rust-colored stones which were left behind after the retreat of the Alpine glaciers which once covered the region.
Since 2008 Claire Fabre has been the winemaker at Le Vieux Donjon. She is the third generation of the Michel family which was founded by the father of Lucien Michel, Marcel Michel, who did the first bottling at his domain in 1966. Since 1979 Marie José and Lucien Michel have run the property. Claire is married to another winegrower, Adrien Fabre of Domaine la Florane in Visan. In 2013 Claire's brother François joined her at the domain, and the two of them became officially responsible for the property together with their mother Marie Michel.