2005 Domaine Pierre Usseglio et Fils, Châteauneuf-du-Pape “Cuvée de mon Aïeul” Rhône Valley, France.
The gorgeous, perfectly aged and evolved 2005 Pierre Usseglio et Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge “Cuvée de mon Aïeul” shows off Grenache at its best with beautiful aromatics, richness and elegant, almost Pinot like grace on the palate, but with more opulent fruit density and textural pleasure. The wine has developed wonderfully, it’s ripe and luxurious, but finely balanced and not flabby at all with endless layers of mixed berry reduction, strawberry compote, cherry, pomegranate and dried currant, along with heady framboise, crushed flowers, salted black licorice, subtle earthy tones, grilled herbs and peppery lavender. There’s some tertiary bay leaf, sous bois and dried fig accents starting to show here, which adds to the complexity and captures 20 plus years very nicely in the glass, I love how Grenache based wines age, and this wine is as good as it gets, those lucky enough to have some bottles will be thrilled where this “Cuvée de mon Aïeul”, Usseglio’s signature wine, is at. Typically, this wine is made with 50% de-stemmed grapes and 50% whole cluster, with fermentation done in temperature-controlled concrete vats with indigenous yeasts. The winery says it sees an extended vatting (maceration) of 30–40 days, with pump-overs and a submerged cap, looking for maximum extraction and phenolic integration. The wine is then racked to and aged in older demi-muids, large-format French oak barrels. The wines, though, as the winery notes, do remain in concrete vats for a portion of élevage to preserve expressive fruitiness before transfer to the demi-muids. Thanks again to my friend Alex Lallos that shared this exceptional bottle with us, it truly shined on the night and fulfilled its potential over the course of a few hours.
Honestly, I had had and admired the Pierre Usseglio wines for a long time, but had not really dug into the history of the estate, more concentrating on the individual wines themseleve, so it was interesting to discover that Francis Usseglio, who left Italy in 1931 during the rise of facsism, arrived in Châteauneuf-du-Pape to work as a farmhand, but by 1948 he had acquired his own vines and founded the domaine. The winery notes that he began producing his first bottles in 1949 and started to build the reputation for the quality, that has been a hallmark of the property. His son Pierre extended the estate and raised its reputation across the following decades, and today the domaine is directed by Pierre’s sons Jean-Pierre and Thierry Usseglio. The domaine has 39 hectares under vine, with 24 in Châteauneuf-du-Pape itself, mainly red varietals obviously, plus parcels in Lirac and Côtes-du-Rhône, with approximately half the estate’s vines are 65 years old or older. The ‘Cuvée de Mon Aïeul’ (Cuvée of My Ancestor) is the estate’s most prestige selection, named in honor of the founder Francis and made exclusively from the oldest parcels, which are 75 to 90-year-old Grenache blocks from three distinct terroirs, the La Crau with its large rounded galets, Bédines, set on clay, and Serres, that has sand and limestone. This wine really was a thrill and great with an evening of friends and BBQ, it was especially good with the grilled steak and held its own against some serious other wines and showed off the charms of old vine Grenache to near perfection, even with close to 15% natural alcohol. Usseglio’s Cuvee Mon Aieul made its debut in 1998, a great Châteauneuf vintage and a sublime year to bring out such an important wine. As hinted at, most of the fruit comes from old vine, low yielding, Grenache Noir vines that were planted mostly in 1926, hence the depth and vinous quality here. I am a big Rhône fan, though with the price of top notch Châteauneufs continuing to rise, so this was a rare treat to experience.
($99 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive