2000 Vieux Donjon - Chateauneuf du Pape Rhone Blend - France - Southern Rhone - Chateauneuf du Pape - Red

($30) Full deep red. Highly nuanced nose combines roasted, liqueur-like red fruits, smoke, truffle and spice cake; this reminded me of Vega Sicilia! Then silky but vinous and firm; a bit subdued today but boasts lovely fruit intensity and incipient complexity. Finishes long and subtle, with ripe, suave tannins and a late note of pepper. This should develop beautifully with bottle aging. (Alain Junguenet/Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ)

The 2000 Chateauneuf du Pape represents an educational tour of the southern Rhone, in particular, Chateauneuf du Pape. It possesses all the appellation's classic components ... underbrush, garrigue, licorice, pepper, lavender, sweet black cherries, and incense. Extremely perfumed and heady, this full-bodied, moderately tannic offering comes close to matching the mass and blockbuster power of the 1998. Firm tannin in the finish suggests a long aging curve. Given my experience with Vieux Donjon, most of the classic vintages hit their peak at 7-8 years, where they remain for 5-6 years. Around age 15-16 they begin a slow decline. The 2000 should follow that path.

Beautiful, silky Châteauneuf terroir aromas: leather, game, truffles, plum, dried herbs, lead pencil. It all swirls around in the palate, a deeply satisfying blend that surprises and harks back to something as simple as a walk in the country on a rainy autumn day. Supple tannins on the balanced finish.

It was time to drink with perhaps another 2 to 5 years left.

I was shocked at how mature this wine was and what character had evolved through its few years of bottle aging. A dead ringer for a Left Bank Bordeaux (perhaps a Graves), this 7 year old Rhone evoked notions of cigar box, sweet tobacco, new saddle leather, cinnamon spice, black currant and loam. Uncommonly restrained and elegant in the palate, pumping waves of medium bodied, satin-textured fruit speckled with copious amounts of pepper and truffle to the finish. Understated and enshrouded in subtlety that belies the vintage and the wine?s age, a sure fire bet for a mature claret lover

Great wine that needed about an hour and a half to fully develop in the glass. Rich nose at first of raspberry and bacon fat, with smokey notes. All of which with time gave way to soft layered spices. Great wine. 4/5

Medium dusky violet colored wine with a few distinct clear legs. With airing, the wine gives up light aromas of spice and red fruits. Sweet spicy yet indistinct fruit on the palate with well-balanced crisp acidity. The wine finishes short with light to moderate tannins.