E. Guigal Chateauneuf du Pape 2001

Domaine: E. Guigal
Country: France
Region: Chateauneuf du Pape
Vintage: 2001
Style: Red
Grapes: 80% old Grenache, 10% Syrah, 5% Mourvèdre and others.
Declared Alcohol (on label): 13.5%
Approximate Price: $49/bottle
Date Reviewed: 6/21/2009
Reviewed By: Galen

Appearance:
Clear with a deep ruby/tawny core and a medium tawny rim. The color spread to the edge completely leaving no room for a watery rim. The legs were medium sized with an average speed.

Nose:
The nose was clean without any cork faults or oxidization. The aromas had a medium to medium + intensity and were clearly on the developing side of maturity. The bouquet showed Dark Cherry, Prunes, All-Spice, Cocoa, Coffee, Caramel, and had a slight Gamy tone.

Palate:
The wine was dry, with medium to medium + acid, and medium tannins. The alcohol, body and length also fell into the medium category. The intensity of the flavors were medium to medium - and showed, Red Cherry, Prunes, Leather, Smokiness, and a Gamy quality.

Conclusion:
Overall the wine fit into the good category, and is about mid priced for this region. This wine is ready to drink now, but can age longer.

Authors Notes:
I should start by saying that I purchased this wine at a supermarket in their close out section. It was a half bottle (375ml) for, no shit, $3.50. I also picked up a half bottle of veuve clicquot nv for $14, crazy I know. So now that I explained the situation about where I bought the wine, this might set the tone for what I think about this wine. 2001 in chateauneuf-du-pape was a stellar year, erobertparker.com scored this vintage in southern rhone as 96 out of 100, and noted that most of the wines were still tannic and were slow maturing. I agree that this wine was still tight, and needs more time to mature. However, I dont trust the conditions that it was stored in for the past few years (I know that this bottle was sitting on the grocery store shelf, probably standing up, for at least 3 years, because the most current vintage of this wine is 2006). So I decided to open this wine up and enjoy my $3.50 purchase, for the sake of this blog. Now on to my personal assessment of the wine.

I loved the color of this wine, I get really excited about older red wines because I really enjoy the transition from fruity to savory flavors that wines take on as they age. Red wines start to get a little lighter in color and the watery rim starts to disappear, which was the case with this wine. I thought the nose on this wine was wonderful, many layers of developed fruits, tied in with spices, kernel (coffee, chocolate), and animal (leather, gamy). Had I been sitting around with other people smelling this wine we could have found 20 plus different descriptors for the nose, all built off of a well made, mature wine.

The palate was a bit more challenging though, since I use the pop and pour technique (this wine should be aerated before consumption), the palate was not as interesting as the nose. The fruit, spice, kernel, animal aspects really ran together and didnt show themselves individually. In contrast, the alcohol was very well integrated into the wine, and didnt provide any excessive 'heat,' which was very pleasant. The tannins were not nearly as robust as I had expected, they were nice and velvety, but for this vintage and this region I was expecting a little more grip. Also I expected a little more weight in the body, but then I did some research and discovered that this vintage from Guigal was mostly grenache (producers in chateauneuf-du-pape are allowed to blend up to 13 different varietal), which in southern rhone produces wines that are typically low in tannin and color. As the wine had time to breath the flavors started to open up more and show more depth, but still I expected a lot more from this producer and vintage. I cant recall if Ive had a 2001 chateauneuf-du-pape, but I do recall enjoying a variety of wines from this region from various vintages, and most of them were younger and had a lot more character. The length on this wine was medium (average), and I was hoping for a lot more, even though it had a front, middle and finish, it still didnt last on my palate as I would have expected it to. If this was a smaller producer I might give them a more of a break, but Guigal is a large producer with land all over rhone, basically I expect a lot more from this wine. Am I disappointed? not a chance since I paid $3.50 for the bottle. I might have been disappointed if I spent $49 per bottle on this wine.

In the end it came down to the fact that the flavors on the palate were not as interesting or as intense as the aroma on the nose, add to that the length was too short for my expectation of this region. From my experience I would suggest that readers find other Chateauneuf du pape's within this price range. I score this wine 89+ points, there are much better examples of this region out there. Not to mention there are $15 spanish grenacha's with longer finish than this wine.