TN: 01 Beaucastel

simply gorgeous. Feral meaty nose with dark fruits and fennel, silky soft layered texture that reminds me of Burgundy, but the taste is definitely Rhone. Long smooth finish, tannins soft and resolved. With cassoulet.

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Alan,
Great pairing. My last ā€˜01 Beau worried me a little, although I loved the wine most of the last 15 years. I found a barbecue sauce note I didnā€™t like. I was worried as the same thing happened to the ā€˜98s which were awesome for so long then became undrinkable to me. I have a few more 2001ā€™s and will open one with the right meal. 2001 was the best vintage of that decade for CdP, IMO.
Cheers
Warren

Warren,

Same concern over the last 2 bottles and similar feelings re a 98 comparison. I had chalked the 98 to be the heavy Grenache, which isnā€™t traditional and should not be there to the same degree with the 01.

Thanks for the note Alan, it gives me hope.

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Great note and very pleased how well it showed. I think I will open one next weekend. Thank you, Alan.

Great note on a great wine. Drank my last bottle last month with the same results.

Thanks Alan. Very good to know.

Great note Alan, I echo your comments on the texture from my note 5 years ago:

3/17/2016 rated 93 points: This is in a good place tonight, my favorite wine of the tasting. The nose is starting to show secondary aromas, some dried fruits, plums and blackberry. The palate is rich and velvety with a lovely texture that lingers on your palate and makes that next sip irresistible.

Iā€™ve always loved this Beaucastel and purchased 2 six packs and 2 magnums. Down to my last 4 bottles and 1 magnum, but it doesnā€™t sound like I should be in a hurry to consume them.

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What is the best window for most beaucastels? Is it best drunk young or does the 10+ year tertiary magic worth the wait?

The wait is worth it.

Very much individual preference. However, for me, Beaucastel (unlike most CdP) is better 15+ years from the vintage. There are a few others (like Vieux Telegraphe) that I think really NEED age to enjoy. By contrast (and again, subject to personal preference for tertiary vs. primary flavors), I think many of the classic ā€œboard favoriteā€ CdPs (Pegau, Vieux Donjon, Charvin, Clos des Papes), can be enjoyed over a wide range of time, although they can certainly go through positive and negative phases of evolution.

I opened a case last year. 7 down and 5 to go out of this case. All 7 have been a delight. Although sometimes I do miss the older bretty version of beaucastel.

Back when Beaucastel gave tastings at the domaine, they would typically taste wines that were ten years old and twenty years old to show how they aged. Iā€™ve been on numbers of these tours and experience this with different vintages (though for aged wines, none after the mid nineties). The experience was revelatory. Only after 10 years old did you even start to get secondary flavors. By age 20, the wines became unbelievably more complex.While the wines taste good young, I would try not to touch them before they are 10 years old, Get your hands on one that is 20, and youā€™ll want to hold onto them even longer.

I really havenā€™t had many vintages of Beaucastel after 2001, but I canā€™t recall ever having a bottle of Beaucastel of any vintage that I thought was over the hill. I believe oldest Iā€™ve tried was a 1966. That must have been consumed around 2000-2003

For me, wait except for 98 which due to its atypical Grenache proportions (high), didnā€™t ever get the complexity upon maturity one hopes for, at least I didnā€™t.

Agreed. I ended up selling my '98s.

Not to mention the high temps in '98 and many wines showing the roasted/stewed fruits.

Thanks for the tasting note, Alan!! [cheers.gif]

Of course, all of my experiences with the 2001 Beaucastel, as well as the '98 & '03 vintages ('02 was labeled as simply Famille Perrin) were at much younger ages.

Got a case of the ā€˜Hommageā€™ in the back of the cellar, 2001, that keeps calling to me. Maybe this thread will be the impetus to bust the first corkā€¦

I like to wait 10 years before opening, as I find the young wines are kind of ā€œgrapeyā€ and primary. They seem to evolve positively for many years, but I donā€™t have much experience with Pre 1995 vintages.

For these older Beaucastels are you drinking them out of 750ml or magnums? If 750mls, did you buy them on secondary market?

On some of the older CDPs that Iā€™ve bought that are late 90s or early 2000s, Iā€™ve had some hit or miss if they came from 750ml bottles.