I have decided for the next 2.5 – 3 years, I am going to help people build up a wine cellar by providing a cellar selection each month. Each bottle I will choose will be over $100 and will have aging potential I have done this for many friends and clients and with the multitude of misinformation (even to do with wines!), I am going to give you my views on wine. I think if you follow my recommendations for the next 2.5-3 years, you will build a pretty nice cellar of wines. Many of my friends and clients have thanked me for wines I recommended in the past that I don’t even remember or I have drunk all of my bottles!
Caveat: this is for people who are interested in building up a long term cellar of wines that they can drink for many years. These selections may need some aging so you will need patience and although some of them will drink nicely right away, many will need the 2.5- 3 years of ageing or longer. But if you follow my recommendations, you will build a very well balanced, nice drinking cellar for not that much money.
My Trophy Wine Cellar Pick this month is the Chateau Beaucastel 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape. This is a protypical Chateauneuf du Pape producer and they seem to never have a bad vintage. Chateauneuf du Pape or CDP is a Southern Rhone region in France. The wine is a blend of 30% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, 15% Syrah, 10% Counoise, 10% 8 other grape types that can be used in CDP and 5% Cinsault.
Beaucastel is unique in that it has a higher than normal percentage of Mourvedre, which adds dark color, tannins, violets and licorice and it uses some grapes normally used to make white CDP.
The CDP region was named after Pope Clement V, formerly the Archbishop of Bordeaux who moved the capital of the Catholic Church from Rome to Avignon in the 14th century. Chateauneuf Du Pape translated means “the Pope’s New Castle”. Luckily he was a wine lover and supported wine production in this region.
People have started to notice this quality of this wine and prices have started to climb in the last few years. It is priced at B.C. Liquor stores at $105.99. It is rated 96 points by Wine Spectator and will drink well until 2040
I would recommend buying 2 bottles for your cellar.
Trophy Wine Cellar Picks to Date
Aurelio Settimo 2016 Rocche Dell Annunziata Barolo Riserva (95 pts Wine Spec) – 2 bottles x 116
Chateau Beaucastel 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape (96 pts Wine Spec) – 2 bottles x $106
Total spent to date: $444 (before tax)
7 Comments
Purchased two bottles last month for about 85 GBP each in northern UK. Can't wait to try the wine.
Great recommendation Trophy
This wine was my first and still only Rhone purchase ever. Great value and can’t wait to try it!
Visiting La Nerthe later this month!
I bought 3 bottles earlier this year. I opened a bottle, and it was still pretty closed even with a good decant, so I'd recommend laying this down for a few years yet.
I had 2010 and 2011 vintages…2010 was memorable wine…2011 not so much….
fell in love with CDP with Beaucastel