1995 Coudoulet de Beaucastel

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1995 Coudoulet de Beaucastel – as a follow-up to my throwing the 1995 Jaboulet Parallel 45 into a Cotes du Rhone tasting in order to contrast young and old, I decided to open one of these.

Still red right out to the rim, with a nose of mature fruit with some leather, the sweet cherry notes of youth having disappeared in maturation. The fruit on palate is quite bright and the wine has a supple smooth feel to it with good length and a gentle hit of pepper at the end. It is fully mature and will hold another few years but will not improve. I found it to be better than the Jaboulet wine by a significant margin – probably the best CduR I recall having from this excellent vintage. I packed quite a few cases of wine from both North and South ‘below stairs’ – maybe it would be interesting to try a bottle of the Ch. de Beaucastel, always assuming I could find it. Anyone opened a bottle lately?