2004 Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Construction on a new bottle room and apartment for Vincent Avril was in full swing when I visited in mid-November, the result of a complete collapse of that wing of the chai in early April of '06. Three thousand bottles were lost, all from the 2003, 2001, 2000 and 1999 vintages. (American fans will console themselves with the fact that many of those bottles were filled with white wine. )Avril adamantly professed his belief in keeping the carbonic gas instead of using sulfur. "Besides, racking tires the wine," he said. Elevage here is exclusively in large, mostly old foudres, "because I really don't like oak tannins. "Speaking of the 2005 vintage, Avril ventured the opinion that it's like 1990, but with better acidity.

Vincent Avril showed me his 2004 from four different foudres, each a different blend of grenache, syrah and mourvedre, before presenting me with an approximation of the final wine.The point he was trying to make was that mourvedre is the key to the pure, floral character of Clos des Papes.Old vines also come into play here, as the average vine age is more than 50 years.Avril was trained at wine school in Dijon, as was his father, and the specter of Burgundy is strongly in evidence here."We have richness, power and the ability to age in Chateauneuf-plenty of tannins and lots of structure-but the challenge is always to get balance."Avril seeks to maintain freshness, purity and exuberance in his wines.He also admits that Clos des Papes can be a tricky wine in its youth."It's impossible to make a wine for aging that also is good to drink young," he explained.