Domaine de la Solitude Châteauneuf du Pape Cuvée Barberini 2018 Magnum

Magnums of Cuvée Barberini come packaged in individual wooden boxes

Accolades:
93/100 – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
93/100 – Jeb Dunnuck
92/100 – Decanter

“A blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Mourvèdre and 10% Syrah, grown on classic clay-and-galets soils, 60% of the 2018 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Barberini spent time in barriques or demi-muids, with the rest in concrete. Despite the elevage, it’s not overtly toasty or cedary on the nose, offering up hints of café au lait and clove atop a base of black cherries and plums. Medium to full-bodied, it’s concentrated and yet also restrained, staying focused and tight in style, then finishing with super length and freshness.” – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

“The 2018 Châteauneuf Du Pape Cuvée Barberini also shows the vintage’s more charming, frontend-loaded style, yet has more density and depth than the base cuvée, giving up the usual black raspberry and cassis fruits intermixed with a kiss of background oak, licorice, peppery garrigue, and graphite. Medium to full-bodied, with supple, silky tannins, beautiful mid-palate depth, and a great finish, this is a gem of a 2018 Châteauneuf du Pape to enjoy over the coming 10-15 years.” – Jeb Dunnuck

“Lively, open and good to go. Full-bodied, generous, with a gentle tannic structure, quite soft and approachable in fact. Harmonious blend, pretty big and brawny but well-defined and fresh with a little tarry, liquorice note to the dark fruits. Alcohol is gently warming and there is a little sweet spicy lick of polished oak in the background. The freshest in their range of 2018s. Old vines on galets roulés, 60% aged in demi-muids and barriques. Drinking window: 2022 to 2032.” – Matt Walls, Decanter

Tasting Notes: A powerful nose, which mixes aromas of tobacco, violet, milk caramel. A velvety mouth with aromas of liquorice and morello cherry, with a lingering chocolate finish. This wine, still in its youth, will be paired with red meats such as a prime rib, but also, for example, a lamb tagine with apricots, duck breasts with cherries and, with a dozen years, a hare “a la royale”.

Winemaking: The grenaches come from old vines planted on the high Quaternary alluvial terraces surrounding the estate. These famous soils of pebbles of quartzites and clays, they give the Cuvée Barberini a great tannic and aromatic power. 45 % Grenache noir, 45 % Syrah, 10 % Mourvèdre. Harvesting is done by hand in 25 kg crates. After a double selection of the best bunches in the vineyard then on a sorting table, the grapes are crushed and partially destemmed. They are vinified by gravity in concrete vats. Long macerations with gentle extractions provide these tannins both powerful and velvetines. This vintage is aged for 60% in barrels and half barrels for 18 months and 40% in concrete vats. The wine is bottled without filtration or fining.

Certification: Organic

Alcohol: 15.0%

Varieties: Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre

Region: Chateauneuf-de-pape AOC, France