Winemaker Notes
The Cuvée Chante Le Merle possesses a nice shiny red color with dark purple highlights. The nose is elegant and complex. This very aromatic Châteauneuf-du-Pape is elegant and long in mouth. A powerful wine with a cellar potential for many years.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Also beautiful, with gorgeous raspberry, kirsch, licorice, ground pepper and assorted Provencal herbs, the 2011 Chateauneuf du Pape Chante Le Merle Vieilles Vignes (first introduced in 1990 and an old vine blend of 85% Grenache and the balance Syrah and Mourvedre) offers a decidedly pretty (especially for this cuvee), polished profile with full body richness, excellent mid-palate depth and a seamless, elegant texture that carries through the blockbuster finish. Up with the top wines in the vintage, it is reasonably approachable now, yet will evolve gracefully for 15+ years given its balance and harmony.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of 90% Grenache and 5% each of Syrah and Mourvedre, aged in a combination of concrete (10%), foudre (60%), and demi-muids (30%), the 2011 Bosquet des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape Chante Le Merle Vieilles Vignes is more serious than the traditional cuvee, showing a core of mineral-laced black fruit, smoked leather, violets, and pepper styled aromatics. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and rich, with good acidity and length, this solid 2011 will drink well for 10-12 years.
Barrel Sample: 90-93 -
Vinous
Brilliant ruby-red. Fresh redcurrant and cherry-cola on the highly perfumed, floral nose. Broad and deep but lively on the palate, offering intense red fruit preserve, lavender pastille and anise flavors lifted by peppery spices. Tightly focused on the youthfully tannic, persistent finish, which smoothly plays richness off vivacity. There's 16.5% alcohol here, in case you're driving.
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Wine Spectator
Lovely black tea and smoldering charcoal notes lead the way, with a core of plum, blackberry and black currant fruit lending sinew to the flesh, resulting in a well-defined, plum skin-framed finish.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
Famous for its full-bodied, seductive and spicy reds with flavor and aroma characteristics reminiscent of black cherry, baked raspberry, garrigue, olive tapenade, lavender and baking spice, Châteauneuf-du-Pape is the leading sub-appellation of the southern Rhône River Valley. Large pebbles resembling river rocks, called "galets" in French, dominate most of the terrain. The stones hold heat and reflect it back up to the low-lying gobelet-trained vines. Though the galets are typical, they are not prominent in every vineyard. Chateau Rayas is the most obvious deviation with very sandy soil.
According to law, eighteen grape varieties are allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and most wines are blends of some mix of these. For reds, Grenache is the star player with Mourvedre and Syrah coming typically second. Others used include Cinsault, Counoise and occasionally Muscardin, Vaccarèse, Picquepoul Noir and Terret Noir.
Only about 6-7% of wine from Châteauneuf-du-Pape is white wine. Blends and single-varietal bottlings are typically based on the soft and floral Grenache Blanc but Clairette, Bourboulenc and Roussanne are grown with some significance.
The wine of Chateauneuf-du-Pape takes its name from the relocation of the papal court to Avignon. The lore says that after moving in 1309, Pope Clément V (after whom Chateau Pape-Clément in Pessac-Léognan is named) ordered that vines were planted. But it was actually his successor, John XXII, who established the vineyards. The name however, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, translated as "the pope's new castle," didn’t really stick until the 19th century.