Dom. du Vieux Télégraphe 1990

And another one bites the dust, as Freddie used to sing.... This estate, as any lover of Châteauneuf-du-Pape will be aware, is one of the stalwarts of the appellation's number one division and has been for ages, under the attentive guiding hands of the Brunier family. A single cuvée only of red and one only of white, but what quality, year in, year out.

Looking back in my records (wasn't I thorough when I was younger!) I see that I bought this in 1992, one dozen bottles, direct from the estate at the price of 70 francs, ie. 10.67 euros. Weep with me friends as we reflect on the ever-rising cost of fine wine; this one costs about four times as much now when it reaches the shelves, and rapidly takes off for bottles that have any age.

Quintessential Châteauneuf!

Anyway, to get back to the essentials, Télégraphe takes a long time to reach its plateau of complex, aromatic harmony, and for years as I drank my way through the dozen I was just a tad underwhelmed, particularly given the quality of the vintage. And then, a couple of years after downing the 11th bottle, the sole survivor's take time came up, and boy had it matured in those two years. Beautifully pungent, a fine classic Châteauneuf bouquet, spicy, peppery, dried herbs, a touch of leather... For me Télégraphe's force resides in its harmony: where many others go overtly animally or spicy with time, this wine develops a harmonious, refined bouquet reminiscent of many things but never dominated by one aroma type. Great finesse in a beefy southern appellation not particularly renowned for that quality. No doubt a question of terroir - the estate lies on the famous La Crau plateau, in the south-east of the appellation - and certainly also one of having the right proportions of the different grape varieties for the soil. Also one of observation, picking at perfect ripeness, never over-ripeness, making the wine as naturally as possibly, just the necessary extraction, and knowing when to take it out of the foudres and get it into bottle... A question of know-how handed down through the generations, and observation and minute refinements as the vintages pass. Definitely one of the great estates of the Rhône valley, and of France.