Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC 1997 – Clos des Papes (Paul-Vincent Avril)
Often I find myself really enjoying unspectacular but harmonious wines from “off” vintages like 1993 and 1999 in the Médoc. In the Southern Rhône, 1997 was widely written off as having produced quite pleasing but often diluted, low acid wines for rapid consumption. (1996 was written off for similar reasons apart from, this time, high acidity.)
So, once again, I was bucking the trend.
C : Quite light and transparent for CdP but not to such an extent as Rayas.
N: When I sniffed the neck of the just opened bottle, my first reaction was “Shit! Another brett monster.” Happily, once in the glass, if brett it was, it only showed up as leathery and gamey notes woven into the rich dark fruit with rose hints and added an extra dimension of complexity.
P: Medium weight with quite "sweet" dark fruit but with good depth and enough brightness for balance laced with attractive animal aromas, a touch of cherry liqueur and soft resolved tannins; elegant (not often an outstanding quality of CdP except Rayas) and quite long.
A very harmonious CdP in a less heavy-weight vein which went beautifully with “marcassin” (= young wild boar); I guess that it should be drunk up soon (not a problem for me because it was the last bottle; my son must have taken the others) but 16.5-17/20 right now.
Clos des Papes 1996 was also very good a few years ago.