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Date Printed: 5/26/2013
Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2006
Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2006
 (search item no. 93854)
collectible wine
green wine

International Wine Cellar rating: 94 points
Wine Spectator rating: 93 points
PRICE ON 5/26/2013: $62.99

ratings pedigree (past vintages):
2010 Wine Spectator rating: 96 points
2010 The Wine Advocate rating: 96 points
2010 International Wine Cellar rating: 94 points
2009 The Wine Advocate rating: 94 points
2009 Wine Spectator rating: 93 points
2009 International Wine Cellar rating: 93 points
2008 Wine Spectator rating: 93 points
2008 International Wine Cellar rating: 91 points
2008 The Wine Advocate rating: 90 points
2007 The Wine Advocate rating: 96 points
2007 International Wine Cellar rating: 93 points
2005 Wine Spectator rating: 95 points
2005 International Wine Cellar rating: 94 points
2005 The Wine Advocate rating: 93 points
2004 Wine Spectator rating: 94 points
2003 The Wine Advocate rating: 95 points
2001 The Wine Advocate rating: 94 points

Winemaker's Notes:

 Vieux Donjon's 2006 Chateauneuf du Pape is a powerful, seriously-endowed effort for the vintage, displaying more structure and muscle than most wines in this forward, fruit-friendly year. Classic Provencal characteristics of garrigue, licorice, lavender, pepper, and kirsch soar from the glass of this dark ruby/purple-tinged offering. In the mouth, it is masculine, tannic, medium to full-bodied, and powerfully built. Potentially one of the longest lived wines of the vintage, it will require 4-5 years of bottle age, and should evolve for two decades.

An estate for connoisseurs with cold cellars, these traditionally made Chateauneuf du Papes rarely strut their stuff until they have been in the bottle for 5-7 years. Moreover, this is one of the few estates that has resisted the current fashion for producing old vine cuvees.
My Notes:

About Le Vieux Donjon:

 Le Vieux Donjon, as it exists today, was created in 1979 with the marriage of Lucien and Marie José Michel. Both Lucien and Marie José's parents owned vineyards in the region, and those holding were combined to form Le Vieux Donjon. The domaine covers fourteen hectares of vineyards (all farmed organically), thirteen planted to red grapes and one planted to white. The Michel's holdings are primarily in the North and Northwest of the AOC, but they also have small plots in the Southwest and East. Their most important parcel is Pialons, and the grapes from the 2008 come from that parcel as well as those in Cabrieres, Bois de Boursan, Les Marines and Le Mourre de Gaude. The soils are mainly limestone and clay, and are studded with the famed galets roulé, the round, rust-colored stones which were left behind after the retreat of the Alpine glaciers which once covered the region