2001 Eric Texier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve Improbable

Dark red. Nose dominated by spicy, tarry oak. Creamy, lively and quite concentrated, but the wine's obviously strong material is currently squashed by the oak element. In fact, this tastes very much like liquid smoke. Finishes with wood notes of coffee, tar, chocolate, coconut and woodsmoke. For fans of oak. (A bottle of the 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes was considerably healthier than the bottle I sampled last year, but I would have identified it as a relatively simple but fat Cotes du Rhone. Texier's wines have attracted a following in the U.S. , but I have found them to be wildly uneven. I very much liked the 2001 Saint-Gervais Vieilles Vignes des Cadinieres Cotes du Rhone-Villages last year, but this time around my sample of the 2001 Seguret Vieilles Vignes was far too gassy, and the 2001 Brezeme Vieilles Vignes, despite showing a complex nose, was tart and sour on the palate. )