"Christophe Delorme believes the 125-case cuvee of 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape La Plume du Peintre will live for 50 to 100 years. When I looked at the technical analysis, I found this wine to be literally off the charts, and I have certainly never seen a wine from either the southern or northern Rhone with such incredible numbers in terms of dry extract and polyphenol levels. It is no shy wine at 16% alcohol, but it seems incredibly well-balanced although strikingly backward. It is like the concentrated essence of blackberries, scorched earth, and an almost liquefied steel and spice component. Huge and amazingly pure, with profound concentration, magnificent body, and a finish that just seems to be endless, this is the stuff of legends, but there is virtually none of it in the marketplace. Give it about 4-5 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 30+ years."
Robert Parker Jr., The Wine Advocate (Issue 163), 99 pts
