CDP Beaucastel Hommage à Jacques Perrin, Perrin - Château de Beaucastel 2007

No Hommage a Jacques Perrin was made in 2008, but the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin is an utterly perfect wine. Composed of 60% Mourvedre, 20% Syrah, and the rest Counoise and Grenache, this prodigious effort boasts an inky/blue/purple color to the rim in addition to an exceptional bouquet of camphor, roasted meats, blueberries, black cherries, black currants, truffles, beef blood, pepper, and incense. The sumptuous aromatics are followed by a wine of compelling intensity, full-bodied power, perfect balance, laser-like focus, and a finish that lasts more than a minute. The 2007's texture reminds me of the 1998 Jacques Perrin, and the freshness of the fruit and explosive aromatics are to die for. There are only 500 cases of this legend in the making, but for those lucky enough to find any, it will last for 40-60 years.

Saturated ruby. A flamboyant bouquet displays exotic scents of creme de cassis, boysenberry, incense, potpourri and garrigue, with licorice and mineral notes coming up with air. Sappy dark berry flavors boast superb purity and completely saturate the palate. Sexy lavender and rose pastille qualities build and carry into the finish, which is stunningly pure, focused and seemingly endless. A ridiculously concentrated wine that somehow manages to be graceful and precise. This cuvee is based on 70% mourvedre.

The 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin, a blend of 60% Mourvedre, 20% Syrah, and the rest Counoise and Grenache, was assembled, and it is another wine that flirts with perfection. I recently had a bottle of the 1990 Jacques Perrin in the company of some Chateauneuf du Pape titans from that vintage, and the Jacques Perrin blew us away. The 2007 is dense, blue/black-colored wine with an extraordinary nose of roasted meats, blueberries, blackberries, cassis, tar, truffles, blood, asphalt, pepper, and incense. I could keep going as it seemed like it changed every time I put my nose back in the glass. The wine is enormously full-bodied with an extraordinarily high level of concentration, and monster, but sweet and seamlessly integrated tannins. This is a 50-60-year wine that should be given a decade of cellaring. As always, it is a privilege to taste at this great estate run by a family that has earned all the success it enjoys