Maison Tardieu Laurent - Châteauneuf du Pape - Vieilles Vignes 2010

The vintage

The quality of the wines, once again, has lived up to our expectations – offering some compensation for the yields in 2010 being extremely low, even lower than those of 2009 – already classified as a capricious vintage.
Relatively challenging conditions prevailed until the beginning of September…
Frost and humidity in the spring resulted in coulure (flower dropping). Grenache was particularly susceptible.
Cool weather during the summer and fairly strong rains at the beginning of September made for very slow and uneven maturation. Fortunately, remarkably good weather followed and the fruit took full advantage of the very favorable conditions - by mid-September, warm weather was certainly back. The vines, with a relatively small potential harvest, were ready to take full advantage of the optimal conditions. Those vignerons that were attentive waited, patiently, until optimal maturity was reached…
As a result, the fruit that was picked was essentially perfect, with superb concentration and ideal acidity levels, making wines with exceptional balance,
an exceptional achievement.
The 2010 vintage is already impressive and has so much promise and so much charm.

Terroir

La Crau, les Serres, le Belvédère.

Ageing

Allier and Tronçais new oak and one Wine casks