As I gear up for the every other year Vinisud in Montpellier in February I tend to get into the mood by working my way through wines from the more active regions from France which take part. That means the Languedoc, Roussillion, Provence and of course the Rhone Valley.
Yesterday with a group of friends I briought along the 1999 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape which is big, rich, ripe fruit and yet, still at age 14, so much a baby in the bottle. The wine is silky smooth, but it has a lot of deep buried terrior, and the heavy concentration of Mourvedre in the wine is keeping this wine in almost suspended animation. Off the cuff, I'd say the wine has another four years before it is really open, and at least another 10 years before it starts to show that it has aged.
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