The
luxury cuvee, the 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape
Cuvee Lou Patacaiau, made by Jacques
Girard, has classic kirsch liqueur notes
intermixed with Provencal herbs, full
body, and oodles of cherry fruit in the
mouth. It tastes like a concentrated
cherry fruit cocktail but with some herbs,
licorice, and spice infused into it. The
wine is dark plum/ruby, broadly textured
as well as quite expansive and pure. It is
seductive, but at the same time structured.
Give it 1-2 years of cellaring and drink
it over the following 10-15 years. The
seductive, almost Burgundian style of
Robert Girard has certainly not lost a
step under Jacques Girard. Some of the
older subscribers may remember my
enthusiastic reviews of the wines of
Robert Girard and his cuvee Belvedere from
the early to mid-1980s. This is the exact
same estate under younger ownership, and
for the most part this organically farmed
vineyard has now become biodynamic. No
known American importer.
