2000 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Chaupin

According to Christophe Sabon, there's a problem with ax000D good bit of 2001 grenache that was picked early because the grape sugars werex000D so high: the drought at the end ofx000D August had blocked the phenolic maturity of the grape skins. Says Sabon: The period of rain on September 16 and 17 unblocked the maturingx000D process and gave the grapes much better balance. In fact, the rain really saved the vintage." The 2001s are generally better for the laterx000D harvesters, Sabon maintains, adding that even though the alcohol levels tend tox000D average a half-degree higher than those of 2000 (Sabon's alcohols in 2001 arex000D all 15+%), the 2001s seem less warm. Yields in 2001 were in the low 26 to 32 hectoliters per hectare range,x000D according to Sabon, down a good 15% from the copious 2000 harvest. Sabon had "preassembled" his 2001sx000D a month before my visit. I thought thex000D Chateauneuf cuvees in particular were among the most promising wines he hasx000D made to date, offering an uncanny combination of thoroughly ripe grenache andx000D enlivening acidity.

Christophe Sabon has been doing most of his malolactic fermentations in barriques and foudres for the past three or four years. The fruit now is drained by gravity from the concrete vats into the barrel cellar. Sabon keeps the lees with the wine, stirring if the wines become reduced. Racking is kept to a minimum: generally during the winter after the vintage and then again for the bottling. Sabon did a solid month of cuvaison for his 2000s; "the skins were very thick, and I needed to do a lot of pigeage to break the skins and get the sugar," he explained. I tasted the 2000s out of cuve where they had been, in Sabon's words, 90% assembled.