TN: 2007 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  • 2007 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (2/9/2020)
    Like many, 07 is often a bit OTT for my taste, but the 07 Beau was really solid when I had it last in 2012. That being said I was actually surprised at just how much I enjoyed this last night. Ripe and flamboyant for sure, and while it veered towards baked or stewed fruit, it never crossed over, in fact it was remarkably fresh for such a large scaled Beau. Just starting to hit some secondary notes, you had to look for them, but they are coming round. Really hard for me to think what to do with my last bottle, if it drinks like this one, I’d say enjoy it now, and wait on the 05’s and 10’s for long distance runners. (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

I have drank 3 of 5 and have loved them all. They are drinking beautifully so you really can’t go wrong by drinking them. That said it will likely be at least a few years before I drink my last bottle.

We served this at our wedding, love this wine

My luck with these has not been as good. Up and down over the years, with excessive ripeness approaching pruniness at times, most recently 4 months ago. Fine as a cocktail wine but hasn’t pushed the buttons Beaucastel usually pushes for me. Happy to hear they’ve performed better for you.

It’s been a while, but this was my experience. I sold my remaining stash.

Sounds like it has improved.

I’m putting together a Beaucastel vertical with about 12 vintages next month. I’ll put one of my 2007s in to see how it compares.

Pat, I’m still holding a couple of bottles to see if more time changes things.

Craig, very interested to hear what a number of different people think after tasting from the same bottle.

Craig, Sounds like a great vertical to put together, what vintages are likely candidates?

I don’t know all the candidates yet. I’m seeing what’s available from our group without totally depleting anyone’s supply (including mine!). The oldest will be 1983 and the youngest 2017. I’m fairly set on revisiting 98, 01, 05 and 07 and maybe 88 and 94 as we haven’t done those with this group.

We had a shorter vertical two years ago that included 89 and 90 from my cellar. They are great but I’m undecided if I want to go there again as supplies are dwindling.

Yeah, I’ve had 2/4 purchased, the first near release which showed beautifully. The second last Spring and it showed disjointed…not necessarily over-ripe (well, at least compared to other CdP producers…) but definitely more one dimensional and a touch boozy. Probably going to wait a few years before opening another one.

Should add this mirrors my experience with the 2010 as well, showed fantastic near release and awkward a few years later.

Boozy, yeah I get that. Agree with waiting a few years.

2007 CdP in general = boozy

We ended up with these two single-blind flights:

2017, 2015, 2010, 2007, 2005, 2001
1999, 1998, 1995, 1994, 1990, 1983

In the younger flight, 2005 was the favorite with 2007 second (no problems with this 07 though it’s maturing faster than 05 or 10). All the others were strong except for a strangely flawed/volatile 2001, which is a shame as that wine has been pretty reliably excellent. The young ones drink well but they do show extremely young. Many people were able to order a lot of these wines by age.

In the older flight the 1990 ranked highest with 1983 and 1999 next. The 1983 was obviously the oldest and beautifully mature. Most tasters had trouble ordering the other wines. 1994 was a bit weak comparatively but still a very nice bottle. 1995 still has some of the hardness of the vintage and is a bit more austere.