My very generous family member gifted me a bottle of 2018 Châteauneuf-du-Pape “La Crau”. I’m so grateful! I don’t want to drink it too early as it is a splurge bottle for us (we haven’t purchased such fancy wine). He said it should be fine to drink now. Does anyone think we’d be missing out on something having it so early?
Appreciate any advice you can offer. Happy holidays!
Any questions about drinking windows can be answered by looking up the wine on cellartracker.com and also professional reviews such as the Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator to name a couple. I generally look at several sources and then I get a pretty good idea what the window is. Personally, I would not pop any 2018 CDP regardless what any source says. It would be infanticide.
Thanks Glenn! Appreciate your help. I think my edit to the title crossed in the ether with your response – I updated the title to reflect that it is Vieux Télégraphe.
Margo,
First welcome to the forum! This is a great place to peruse and learn at your own place. I think with a wine like this, it can be helpful to inquire from the individual that gifted you the wine (if you know they are really into wine) to see when they might expect you will enjoy the wine. If you are not aware of that information there are a lot of ways to look at this.
I personally have found that I prefer Châteauneuf-du-Pape either in it’s youth (first 1-2 years of release). So you might want to open the wine this January or February during the cooler months of the winter. Having said that, it might also be really nice to age this wine (15-20ish years).
Châteauneuf-du-Pape can be rich, bold, & full of power in it’s youth. As it ages, I find the wine to become quite rustic & earthy.
I hope this is helpful.
VT can age a long time. I’d wait at least ten years, assuming you have good storage.
That would be best opened either right now, or 15+ years from now.
Depends on the expectations of the gifter? If they want you to enjoy now, do so. My personal preferences are to either drink VT very young or age it interminably.
Our posts crossed in the ether. What Brian says.
This.
I usually defer to the gifter when he/she wants me to drink the gift.
.
Cellar Tracker lists the drinking window for this wine as 2025-2037. Since I don’t care too much for Grenache, I don’t have as much experience with CDP as with other wines, although I had have many over the years. It is interesting to learn that many seem to have the opinion that it can be drunk both young and old. I assume that means it is to be avoided during the in-between years…interesting.
You can drink it now or for the next year or two. Then listen to those who are telling you to age it. Vieux Telegraphe makes old bones, but first it goes through a closed period starting somewhere after age 2 and before age 5. After 10, it seems to just keep developing. I’ve had them at 25 when they were singing. I’ve also had them at 10 when they were great.
Exactly. I’ve had a few at 35-40 years that were still amazing, too. For the OP, the key is good storage. If you have proper wine storage this bottle will probably last as long as you want it to. But if not it’s better to drink it during its early forward stage. This may also be true if you want to see if these “fancy” wines are to your liking. Maybe it will lead you down the path that so many of us have gone down? 
This 100%.
I like my CDPs as babies or with lots of time. VT and Beaucastel is definite agers, but I get great pleasure out of both of them in that 1-2 years of release. I would have no qualms popping this right now. I’m popping a mag of 2017 Pegau tomorrow. They are delish, and I find CDP to be quite celebratory for the holidays.
Wow, thank you so much to everyone for taking the time to respond! This is super helpful feedback. The person who gifted me the bottle said he wanted me to have it whenever I wanted, but that he suspected it would be good to drink now. It’s wonderful to have that confirmed. We are now planning to have this with our holiday meal tomorrow. And very excited to see how it is!
Yes, I’m looking forward to seeing whether this is up our alley. It does seem to be a bit dangerous, haha – almost can’t tell if I want to love it or not!
If you are opening tomorrow, I suggest you open it a couple of hours in advance and give it a taste. If it seems a little mute decant it or, if you don’t have a decanter, pour out a large glass and let the bottle and the glass breathe. A little airing generally helps young wines.
This is too funny – I was just returning to this thread to ask this exact question – whether & how long to decant. I appreciate your suggestion to taste it before decanting, that is very useful!
I was gifted a 2010 in when I turned 60 in 2013. I’m in no rush to drink that.
I would also pop it now to see whether you like it and to be able to properly thank your friend. Also tend to drink early or late and that VT and Beaucastel age quite nicely for CdP. I had a 1994 VT in August that was lovely.
It hurts to recall that Kermit used to sell this for $96 per case on short term futures (back in the 1980s).
-Al
I have to say that I always taste before I decant. If the wine is corked, there’s no reason to infect the decanter with it.