2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc Roussanne
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The 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape Blanc sports a medium gold color as well as some honeyed melon, pineapple, and subtle brioche aromas and flavors. It's juicy and well-made, has good purity, and is best drunk over the coming year or two. This larger estate is run today by Xavier Perrin and the quality appears to be on the uptick.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
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Green-tinged yellow. Lively, mineral-accented aromas of orange zest, pear skin and nectarine are complicated by a suave floral nuance. Sappy and incisive on the palate, offering juicy citrus fruit, green apple and floral flavors and a deeper suggestion of peach pit. In a fresh, fruit-driven style, finishing with very good energy and citrusy persistence.
One-fifth of Perrin's 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc is fermented and aged in new oak, giving the wine a classy hint of pencil shavings that frame tropical fruit. It's medium to full-bodied, showing guava and banana flavors on the mid-palate, then turns lime zesty on the finish. It seems a bit disjointed now, but I think it will knit together within a few months of bottling and drink well for a couple of years after that.