Originally Posted by
slawecki
cdp is parker's dream wine. i bought a case of '90 beaucastel just before he came out with his raves and rating of the stuff. the merchant was so excited when i brought 11 bottles back, he gave me credit for 12. i had a purple tongue party. went all over town, and bought about 20 different cdps. had about a dozen people who are in the wine biz over. they thought i was playing some kind of a joke on them. this was the worst received party since my camaniere party, and a close second to my south african party. i like some of the grapes mixed in cdp, but the wine itself to me is a joke. we have been to cdp(the vineyard on top of the hill) a number of times. to quote that old lady, "where's the beef?"
oh, oh, and to recommend a good one, get either an aussi or a california knockoff. some of them are really good.
Beaucastel is a truly maddening wine for me. They bottle from individual casks without blending them together, and that makes the quality quite erratic. Some of the very greatest bottles I've ever had of Chateauneuf du Pape have been Chateau Beaucastels. Also some of the worst, weirdest flawed wines.
Of course, it goes without saying that when Parker tastes their wines, they are giving him samples that came from the best barrels they have in any vintage.
When the stuff used to sell for under $20 a bottle, I could put up with the variability, and await the really great ones, and treat it like buying a lottery ticket. Nowadays, for what the wines sell for, I won't take the chance, and Domains like Pegau, and Vieux Telegraphe, are much more consistent and somewhat less costly.