2008 Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Iasked Thierry Sabon if there was a fairly recent vintage to which he could compare 2008 and he quickly named 1993, "although in '93 the key was to get your grapes in before the rain. In 2008 you had to be patient and wait for Indian summer. People who did wait got some good ripeness, a lot better than most people imagine. But the stereotype has been set by so many wines that were made from underripe grapes." Sabon reiterated that what saved 2008 was the Mistral, which dried out the vineyards and saved the grapes from rot. "If you held out, you got that advantage, if you didn't, well, you can imagine the result." Although Sabon believes that he could have made an honorable Cuvee du Papet from 2008 he finally decided against it because "the production would have been very small and it's more important to make sure that your classique is at as high a level as possible before you start worrying about your prestige wine." Incidentally, Sabon is now making a Chateauneuf du Pape from the estate's younger vines, aged completely in older casks. He believes this will help to steadily improve the quality of his classique. The new wine, called Petit Mont, is 95% grenache and was initially meant to be sold mostly to restaurants. But Sabon told me he has had a huge and unexpected response to the wine from his importers "because everybody is looking for value and wines that they don't have to age." (Various importers, including Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY and North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA)

"Two thousand seven was a winemaker's dream," Thierry Sabon told me, "because we got both a big crop and excellent concentration, which isn't how it usually works." Sabon had not yet decided whether he would bottle a Cuvee du Papet from 2008, adding that the yield for the vintage was a low 23 hectoliters per hectare. "It was rainy but we got the mistral, which saved the vintage from being the disaster of 2002, when we got no wind to dry the vineyards." We talked about the influence of oak on his wines and he told me that while he tends to be flexible he tries to err on the side of too little because "wood is only good when you don't notice it. When it becomes as obvious as the fruit it's too much for me."