| Score: |
95 WA.
"Showing a bit of brick at the rim, Vieux Télégraphe's 2001 Châteauneuf-du-Pape remains a wonderfully complex, vibrant wine. Marked by scents of pressed flowers, a hint of button mushrooms and plenty of cherry-raspberry fruit, it's medium to full-bodied and silky textured, finishing long and complex .... A visit to Vieux Télégraphe also means a chance to revisit past vintages, so [Daniel] Brunier opened bottles of the 2011 and 2001. ‘Arriving after 2010, which was great, I don't have a good memory of that vintage [2011],’ said Brunier. But the wine showed well, mature and nicely evolved yet still offering a few more years of drinkability. Of 2001, Brunier remarked, ‘It was a normal summer, normal rain at normal times, with no big, defining feature. But this is the kind of vintage I can drink a bottle by myself. It's not a big vintage by the numbers, but it has aged well because it is balanced.’ Amen to that." Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate, May 2022 |