Clos de l'Oratoire des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Choregies 2018
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Wine
Spectator -
Jeb
Dunnuck - Decanter
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The color is an intense cherry with delicate ruby flashes. The nose offers a selection of subtle notes (ripe red and vanilla fruit, followed by black pepper and fresh rosewood). The attack is full of candor, bringing out the tannins and freshness. Fruit aromas complete a long finish.
Enjoy with caramelised spicy rabbit, or an autumn dish with ceps or truffles and game.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Dark and muscular, with blackberry puree and dried fig laced with bitter chocolate wrapped around a spine of iron. Earthy and spicy, with crème brûlée highlights and charred apple wood accents through the dynamic, impressive finish. Grenache and Syrah.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Chorégies offers slightly more concentration as well as slightly more elegance. Beautiful notes of black raspberries, toasted spices, dried flowers, and licorice all emerge from this medium to full-bodied effort, which has a terrific mid-palate, ripe yet certainly present tannins, and a great finish. It’s one of the few 2018s that will benefit from a year or two of bottle age, and it will keep nicely over the following decade.
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Decanter
Striking, hedonistic nose with lots of sweet red fruits, caramel and creamy oak. Full-bodied, with good strawberry fruit and a lengthy finish. Drink soon. Blend: 90% Grenache, 7% Syrah, 3% Mourvedre.
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2019-
Jeb
Dunnuck
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James
Suckling - Decanter
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wine
Spectator
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Spectator -
Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
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The story begins in 1880 when Edouard Amouroux became the owner of the Clos des Oratoriens, a fine vineyard parcel of Syrah vines in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It was named after the oratory beside the parcel at Tresquoy.
Located on a protected natural area, Le Prieuré (the winery and château) is an incredible building that is also the guardian of 9.8 acres of vineyards in Côtes-du-Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellations.
Over the years, the original vineyard of 49.5 acres has been enriched with new plots from the best terroirs of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, particularly parcels of sand (safres), limestone and red-sand stone to complete the initial blend. Today, total surface is 100 acres. Rolled pebbles bring a great generosity, the Safres provide a touch of elegance, the limestone chips diffuse a delicate minerality and red-sand stone roundness.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
Famous for its full-bodied, seductive and spicy reds with flavor and aroma characteristics reminiscent of black cherry, baked raspberry, garrigue, olive tapenade, lavender and baking spice, Châteauneuf-du-Pape is the leading sub-appellation of the southern Rhône River Valley. Large pebbles resembling river rocks, called "galets" in French, dominate most of the terrain. The stones hold heat and reflect it back up to the low-lying gobelet-trained vines. Though the galets are typical, they are not prominent in every vineyard. Chateau Rayas is the most obvious deviation with very sandy soil.
According to law, eighteen grape varieties are allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and most wines are blends of some mix of these. For reds, Grenache is the star player with Mourvedre and Syrah coming typically second. Others used include Cinsault, Counoise and occasionally Muscardin, Vaccarèse, Picquepoul Noir and Terret Noir.
Only about 6-7% of wine from Châteauneuf-du-Pape is white wine. Blends and single-varietal bottlings are typically based on the soft and floral Grenache Blanc but Clairette, Bourboulenc and Roussanne are grown with some significance.
The wine of Chateauneuf-du-Pape takes its name from the relocation of the papal court to Avignon. The lore says that after moving in 1309, Pope Clément V (after whom Chateau Pape-Clément in Pessac-Léognan is named) ordered that vines were planted. But it was actually his successor, John XXII, who established the vineyards. The name however, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, translated as "the pope's new castle," didn’t really stick until the 19th century.