Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2019
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Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
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Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The secret to the success of Le Vieux Donjon is really no secret at all. They have tremendously old vines (many in excess of 80 years of age) and they are experts at picking only once the grapes have achieved optimum ripeness. Partial de-stemming is practiced, as is a rather lengthy maceration. The juice is then fermented in cement tanks before spending 18-24 months maturing in neutral foudres. As is the case at Clos des Papes, only one cuvée is produced.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
I was able to taste the 2019 Châteauneuf Du Pape multiple times, and it’s the finest vintage I’ve ever tasted from this estate, surpassing even the 2016. Lovers of classic, impeccably made Châteauneuf du Pape should back up the truck on this beauty. A wine of incredible richness and depth, as well as elegance, it has a gorgeous nose of peppery herbs, blackberries, garrigue, cured meats, and sandalwood. Full-bodied and concentrated, it builds incrementally on the palate and is perfectly balanced, with sensational purity, ripe tannins, and a great, great finish. There’s nothing over the top or out of place, and traditionally made Châteauneuf du Pape doesn’t get much better. It needs 2-4 years of bottle age and will shine for well over two decades. Bravo!
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Decanter
Very full-bodied with a lovely sweetness to the fruit, fine tannins and great freshness. Really shot through with juicy, sweet, chocolatey tannins and great concentration. Very well balanced however, not heavy or aggressive with a stony minerality on the finish. The most impressive barrel sample of Vieux Donjon I've ever tasted, this is profound stuff. This traditional estate owns 18ha of Châteauneuf, with considerable plantings of old-vine Grenache. Fermented in concrete vats, then aged in concrete and old foudres.
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Wine Spectator
A brick house, this sports a chiseled edge as a mix of juniper, cassis, plum, bay leaf, charcoal and graphite notes all align thanks to the racy structure and vibrant energy. Built for the cellar, with a lovely old school whiff through the finish. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A great vintage of Vieux Donjon, the 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape is still sturdy and tannic, marked by concentrated dark fruit. Powerful and concentrated, it deserves another few years in the cellar, although it begins to be approachable after four hours in a decanter.
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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.