Friday, November 23, 2007

A Visit to Domaine Pegau

While attending a scientific conference at the spectacular Palais des Papes in Avignon, we had an afternoon off on Wednesday, giving a group of us the chance to visit a couple of Domaines in Chateauneuf du Pape. We arrived at Domaine Pegau about 1/2 hour before Laurence Feraud returned from the vendange, giving us an opportunity to watch the transfer of the day's harvest of Vieilles Vignes to vats. Everybody seemed to be quite pleased with the ripeness and quality of the grapes, so it looks like 2005 will be another excellent year. At about 5:45 PM, Laurence Feraud returned and we made our way into the cellars for a tasting. If possible, my non-expert (oenologically speaking) geochemical colleagues were even more blown away by this lady Laurence Feraud than I was--after a full day in the vineyards, she came across almost as a force of nature, with a Proustian monologue on wine style and making past and present, laced with anecdotes about the early years when she first took over from her father at the Domaine. She provided some interesting thoughts on the styles of her own wines, but also how they compared to many of the other CdP and even California wines that she loves. And, of course, this masterful verbal performance was interlaced with barrel and bottle tasting of a representative selection of her wines, ranging from the Port-like 2003 da Capo (not exactly my style, but clearly a great wine in the making), to the striking minerality and spiciness of the 2001 Cuvee Laurence. I have to wonder why Bob Parker has questioned the bottling of the Cuvee Laurence given the Cuvee da Capo, but to my mind these wines are completely different in style, although I have to admit that I am comparing different vintages here (2003 da Capo with 2001 and possibly 2004 Cuvee Laurence).
  • 2004 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Laurence - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
    Laurence Feraud said that this barrel of the 2004 was most likely destined for the Cuvee Laurence, but who knows at this stage where it will end up. Nearly black in color, dense, extracted, this wine shows very firm acidity and some powerful tannins. A bit difficult for some of the tasters in our group because of the high acidity and tannins, I thought this wine showed great potential. Very sharply delineated, with a great mid-palate dominated by dark, dense fruit, this wine could be great after some barrel and bottle aging. Quite impressive in my opinion and one of my favorites of the tasting...
  • 2003 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
    A barrel from clay-rich soil, this sample was strikingly dark in color, almost as dark as the 2004. Sweeter on the palate and less obviously acidic, this wine still showed some substantial tannins. As I recall, Laurence Feraud said that they had added the maximum tartaric acid to this wine and it showed, with a sweet dense core balanced by more acid and tannin than I expected for the vintage. On the nose, quite prominent licorice, but with sweet extract dominating the mid-palate, this was quite impressive and I am glad I sprang for 6 bottles earlier in the year. The wine, however, has not quite finished it malolactic fermentation, thus the delay in bottling. Laurence Feraud said that the pebbly soil tends to produce higher alcohol wines with slightly higher residual sugars, the clay-rich soil a lower alcohol wine.
  • 2003 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée da Capo - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
    Laurence Feraud said this barrel of the da Capo would most likely be blended with about 20% Grenache from some of the pebbly soils, providing some additional structure. The barrel sample tasted here showed a distinctly Port-like quality, with multiple layers of sweet, dense fruit. Great mouthfeel, this wine positively coats the palate, almost as if the wine were congealing Napalm-like in the mouth. Otherwise, not exactly my style at this point with its high alcohol and apparent sweetness (I know, residual sugars are probably quite low here). But this wine may be a different animal after final blending and some years in the bottle. The raw materials are certainly there...
  • 2001 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Laurence - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
    Laurence Feraud cracked a bottle of the 2001 Cuvee Laurence at the end of our tour/tasting. For me, this was the wine that showed best, with the expressive nose showing a distinct spiciness from the time spent in oak barrels, but also very distinct notes of damp earth and dust. In the mouth, very bright and delineated, with beautifully ripe fruit at the core, this struck me as similar overall in style to the Cuvee Reservee from 2001 after 30 minutes or so in the glass, but with a brighter, more minerally character. Certainly my wine of the tasting, I wonder whether this wine has not been under-rated a bit by the critics. I could drink this until the cows come home...
One of the best Domaine visits ever for me, but also for my wine neophyte colleagues, who seemed to pick up on what all of the Pegau fuss is about in the course of about 1.5 hours. Only way to improve on this would have been to finish with a bottle of the 1990 Cuvee Reservee, but we couldn't find it on the wine list at the local restaurant.

1 comment:

Brad Coelho said...

Laurence acidified the '03 Reservee? I wonder how many producers in Chateauneuf did in that vintage...or do w/ regularity?