2009 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Le Petit Mont

Thierry Sabon told me that he has been exerting a conscious effort to make his family's wines more open and accessible without making them easy, "because the reality is that people really don't want to have to wait for years and years to enjoy their bottles." That said, he has no intent "to get too far away from what people have come to expect here, which is wines that are more about balance than weight." He added that getting richness from the vineyards in Chateauneuf is rarely an issue, "but what is an issue is achieving wines with focus and finesse." Sabon described 2009 as a year that combined the power of 2007 with the elegance of 2006" at his property, but 2010 is a different story: "a unique, very special year where everything went right, except for yields." He calls the later vintage "perfect for the Mont Olivet style: richness with elegance and balance." (various importers, including North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA and Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)

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)