Clos Papes, Chateauneuf Du Pape Vintage:2001 a touch of asparagus gives

a touch of asparagus gives the wine a greenness in the middle palate but there's also plenty of supporting dark fruit and graphite minerality

This was a notoriously warm vintage that saw sugar and phenolic ripeness shoot up very quickly at the end of the growing season

The 2017 Clos Apalta is the 20th vintage of this wine that was produced with a blend of 48% Carmenere

(from three separate plantings that have an average vine age of ~35 years)

2014 was one of those vintages when it was impossible not to sit up and take notice of what was happening at Lafon-Rochet

Clos Papes, Chateauneuf Du Pape Vintage:2001 a touch of asparagus givesLurid ruby. A complex, highly perfumed bouquet evokes raspberry liqueur, cherry compote, exotic spices and candied lavender. Juicy, seamless and alluringly sweet, offering impressively concentrated and sharply delineated flavors of sappy red fruits, succulent herbs, spicecake and candied flowers that spread out steadily on the back half. Densely packed but also lithe in character, finishing with slow building tannins that shape the exuberant red fruit