WineLovers Discussion Group

Hello Wineforum. Does anyone have recent experience with the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Cailloux 2000 Cuvee Centenaire (Lucien et André Brunel)? Is it ready, and how long will it need to breath? Double decanting? I got hold of a couple of botles that I would like to serve for a special dinner and do not have samples for trying out before. The Centenaire is known to be fairly light, sometimes almost Burgundian, and I do not want to ruin it. Any opinion is appricated!

Well my last time iwth this wine was over 5 years ago, so it's certainly not recent experience. That being said, 2000 Chateauneuf is about the most open, giving vintage that I have seen. Open it, take a small sip, and go from there. I doubt it will need a ton of air time. Perhaps a couple of hours.

Jeppe, I tasted this at a friend's house a few months ago. It showed well without decanting; however, someone else present had recently had a bad experience with the same wine and we got into a discussion of whether or not the problem/damage was importer-based (can't recall the other name that came up, but the bottle we enjoyed was Kacher). So I just checked cellartracker on your behalf to see what other recent notes say, and reports over the past six months reflect about the greatest diversity of bottle variation I've ever seen on any wine: everything but divine to disgusting, and all stops in between. Your bottles are definitely ready to drink--hopefully, though, you've got good bottles. Sorry for the bad news; better have backups ready just in case.