TN: 2015 Château Pradeaux Bandol (France, Provence, Bandol)

  • 2015 Château Pradeaux Bandol - France, Provence, Bandol (9/18/2021)
    Decanted 6hrs. I’ll be honest, the first glass was a tad rough, the wines quality was absolute, and without question. Being a 15, it had a really attractive core of dark blackberries with a floral halo floating around. But those tannins, deadly serious and completely dominating the proceedings. Yet the 2nd glass was much,much better, I think my taste buds had adapted to the tannic punch and all seemed in alignment resulting in a very joyful drink. I really liked this. If I could go back in a time machine I would have told 30 year old Dale to reduce CdP Purchases by 50% and start buying more Bandol reds. I would love to taste a mature example someday. (92 pts.)

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Mature Bandol is a thing of beauty. Takes a long while to get there.

Thanks for the note, I have no plans of opening mine anytime soon (or the 2013, or the 2014). That said I do love Pradeaux’s rugged’n’rough character.

no furry notes?

If you mean brett, don’t recall ever having a bretty Pradeaux Rouge. It does have a kind of feral character, but that’s different.

Great producer, has been run by the same family since before the French Revolution, very old-school. I love them with maturity, but I enjoy drinking a bottle young to get a sense of the vintage. Haven’t yet done that with 2015, though.

-Al

Yup, definitely a Wine I wish I had more of, and ironically I drank a lot of it early on in my budding wine career.

Hi Arv, actually no now that I think about it, it was rather clean in that regard. Perhaps the ripeness of the vintage was masking some of the more wild side of the grape.

I love the wines of Chateau Pradeaux. Probably should drink them more often. Visited there in 2009, and I very much agree with Al that it is definitely an old school producer in the best sense of that term.

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Loved 1990 Pradeaux.
Still one left.
Steak!!!