2009 Chateauneuf du Pape

The 2009 Chateauneuf du Pape Marie Beurrier will last for 20-25 years and may turn out to be as gorgeous as the 1990. It is a beautiful wine, with resolved tannins, showing much deeper, richer fruit and more texture, body and balance than it did last year. Visiting with Henri Bonneau at his subterranean wine cellar, which could easily double as a bat cave, is always one of the highlights of a year of wine tasting. This property began estate bottling in 1927, with Bonneau’s father, but can trace its history back hundreds of years. Of course, since the death of Jacques Reynaud of Rayas in 1997, Henri remains the patron saint of all things “ancien” in Chateauneuf du Pape. He is revered like no other producer in the village, and while getting an appointment is never easy, once he is familiar enough with someone, he is nothing less than a hoot and a howl to talk to and to taste with. As Harry Karis points out in his absolutely magnificent book on Chateauneuf du Pape, The Chateauneuf du Pape Wine Book, Bonneau’s favorite subjects are gastronomy, the Algerian War, and a third one that Harry didn’t mention, young women. Speaking with a Provencal twang, it’s not always easy to understand exactly what he’s saying, but his animated face and extraordinary passion for these subjects, as well as his own wines, are always a treat. Everything about Bonneau’s estate goes against modernism. The cellars are filthy, and the barrels range in age from 10 years old to probably over a century. He has a relatively small estate of just under 17 acres, and he doesn’t really bottle anything for at least five years. His most recent bottlings include the 2004 Cuvee Marie Beurrier and Reserve des Celestins and the 2005 Reserve des Celestins, which won’t be released until next year. Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173