2010 Domaine La Barroche Pure Chateauneuf du Pape
Chateauneuf du Pape, Southern Rhone,
FRANCE
$250. 00
Bottle
$3000.00 Dozen
Closure: Cork
Other reviews... The monumental 2010 Chateauneuf du Pape Pure is a candidate for perfection after several more years of bottle age. It boasts an inky/ruby/purple color with extraordinary “purity,” along with notes of spring flowers, luxurious levels of black raspberry and kirsch liqueur, licorice and mulberries. Layers of flavor hit the palate with exceptional freshness and definition as well as teeth-rattling intensity and power. This extraordinary tour de force is one of the greatest wines made in the world today. It should evolve easily for 15-20+ years. I have no idea what the alcohol levels are in these cuvees, but I’m sure they are pushing 16% or more. This is a legendary wine!
The brilliant Julien Barrot has decided to produce only two cuvees of Chateauneuf du Pape from the family’s nearly 32 acres of vineyards. It is amazing what Julien has accomplished since he began working at Domaine La Barroche in deluge-plagued 2002, the year when historical floods inundated Chateauneuf du Pape on September 8 and 9. The water could not have come at a worse time since prior to that it appeared to be a superb harvest. The first great vintage produced by Barrot was 2005, and he has continued with a remarkable succession of riveting wines. One of the world’s greatest red wines is his 300 or so cases of Pure that come from a lieu-dit called Grand Pierre next to the famed Chateau Rayas. The two cuvees called Signature and Terroir are now combined into one simply called Chateauneuf du Pape (the name may change in the future). It includes an intriguing component of less than 10% 70-year-old Cinsault, which gives the wine an extraordinary fragrance as well as a delicacy that can be missing in these southern Rhone wines. The Pure is 100% Grenache from 105-year-old vines.
99 points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, Oct 2012
99 points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, Oct 2012