Posts Tagged ‘estates’

 Christophe Sabon runs this estate along with his father, Aimé, and his sister Isabel. They produce three different Châteauneuf red cuvées, a regular Châteaune runs uf-du-Pape, the Chât eauneuf-du-Pape Chaupin and the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes. Although the two top cuvêes, Chaupin and the Vieilles Vignes, have both been rated highly in the past few vintages.
 

Young Christophe Sabon, with his sister by his side and his father in the background, is doing as great a job turning out terrific wines as any vigneron in the world. With nearly 200 acres of vineyards, 45 of them old vines situated in Chateauneuf du Pape, there is enormous potential, all of it being exploited. The 1998s, 1999s, 2000s, and 2001s were all fabulous at this estate, the 2003s were slightly irregular as well as tannic, the 2005s were great, the 2006s are fabulous, and the 2007s may be the sine qua non of all his vintages.

The white wines are not to be missed as they are some of the freshest, most perfumed, lively whites of Southern France. The value picks represent remarkable bargains. The bottled 2006 low end wines are all in the marketplace. While they are not quite at the level of the 2007s, there are some gorgeous choices for consumers. Janasse’s 2007 Chateauneuf du Papes are outrageous, all of which performed brilliantly despite  having just completed their malolactics after 11 months of fermentation. With all of the excitement over the 2007s, readers should not forget just how great Janasse’s  2006s have turned out. They are performing as well as they did last year, perhaps even better.

Domaine de la Janasse

This domaine was created in 1973 by Aime Sabon and is composed of 50 hectare throughout Chateauneuf, Cotes du Rhone, Cotes du Rhone villages and vin de pays. Christophe Sabon took over for Aime in 1991 after receiving a BTA in winemaking and oenology from Beaune and a BTS in marketing at Macon. Christophe was joined by his sister, Isabelle, also oenologist, in 2001. 
This estate employees partial destemming (50% to 80% inclusion depending on stem maturity), very long maceration (3 to 4 weeks) and even some micro-oxegenation on their vin de pay wines. The grenache sees primarily vat ageing where as the syrah and other varietals see small barrique, including new, for 12 to 14 months.
This winery produces a traditional cuvee, a Chaupin cuvee which is typically 100% grenache from a single, cool climate plot that sees 30% barrique, ¼ of which is new and a Vieilles Vignes blend which is a blend of the oldest vines that sees 40% in barrique with ¼ being new.