Christmas shopping: done! Year after year, I rack my brain in an inspired yet futile attempt to find the perfect Christmas gift. This holiday season, it seems the tide has turned. I was enjoying a bottle of the '06 Vieux Telegraphe 'La Crau' Chateauneuf-du-Pape with my braised shortribs the other night and 2 thoughts kept recurring in my head: 1.) 'This La Crau is remarkably expressive for such a young CDP' and 2.) 'Who in their right mind doesn't like a good Chateauneuf?' For daily drinking, I admit to being extremely biased towards the wines of the Loire, red and white. There is no pleasure greater to me than gulping down a chilled young Bourgueil (Les Galichets from Pierre and Catherine Breton, for instance) but I realize that to some, the seemingly austere palate and light body are not qualities they immediately embrace. A CDP, however, is such a crowd pleaser in ways that the 'little wines' of the Loire are not. It's a big blockbuster wine yet when properly farmed and vinified it can also exhibit a great deal of complexity and character. And there it is--the perfect gift for the widest number of people. To me this is a wine that can just as well be enjoyed now as it can benefit from 10 years or beyond in the cellar. And that is my goal, to keep enough of it cellared so that on Christmas Day 2019 I can allow this no longer young Chateauneuf-du-Pape to pummel me with revelations.
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