Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin Beaucastel 1998

Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin 1998 is a mature blended red wine from the southern Rhône Valley of France. Tracing its history back to 1549, when Pierre de Beaucastel purchased his first plot of Coudoulet vines, Château de Beaucastel has been operated since 1909 by successive generations of the Perrin family. Beaucastel continues to reside among the elite producers of the Châteauneuf region. Hommage a Jacques Perrin is the Grand Cuvée of the domaine and is only produced in exceptional vintages from a single foudre, with extra maturation than the regular domaine bottlings. "The splendid 1998 Hommage a Jacques Perrin is a compelling wine. Dense plum/ruby/purple, with intense notes of kirsch liqueur intermixed with licoricey, camphor, incense, and black fruits, this wine cuts a broad swath across the palate, is very opulent, with a multi-layered texture, and despite its power, massiveness, and structure, comes across as pure, well-balanced, and classic in its proportions. This wine still needs another 5 or so years of cellaring, but it is one of the few Jacques Perrin wines that can be drunk at age 12 with enormous pleasure. It still has another 25-30 years ahead of it. Atypically forward for a wine from Beaucastel, my recollection is that the actual percentage of Grenache, which never exceeds the Mourvedre in their final blend, was much higher in 1998 than in other years." 100 points, Robert Parker, 2010