2021 Chateau de Beaucastel Hommage a Jacques Perrin Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone

The 2021 Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage à Jacques Perrin is approximately 60% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache and 20% Syrah. Marked by scents of truffle and tree bark, great blackberry and black cherry fruit, plus accents of licorice and peppery spice, it's another in a line of terrific wines that have been made every year since 2009. Full-bodied, rich and concentrated, it's velvety but tannic, with enough structure and intensity on the lingering finish to expect at least two decades of cellaring potential (but probably more).

On my last two visits to this large, historic property, I've been greeted by Cesar Perrin, who now manages all of the family's vineyards and supervises the winemaking at Château de Beaucastel. Other family members continue to be involved in the myriad wine-related business decisions, including participating in the annual blending process.

The big news is that the new, state-of-the-art winery facility is inching closer to completion. Built largely of rammed earth from the site, and designed to have a big portion of the cooling load handled by ambient winds evaporating stored rainwater, it will set new standards in sustainability (assuming it all works the way it is supposed to).

In the vineyards, experiments with various cover crop regimes rolled as mulch are taking place with a view toward slowing sugar accumulation in the grapes and reining in potential alcohol levels. The results are intriguing, with the 2021 samples I tried from barrel coming in 0.5% to

0.7% lower in finished alcohol and with slightly lower pHs compared to plots farmed more traditionally, yet they wines still exhibit dark fruit and supple tannins. "I don't want to change," explained Cesar, "but I'm afraid to have too much alcohol and too low acidity." Along similar lines, there's been a bit more use of open-top vats for fermentation, which can also bring down alcohol levels.

Overall, the 2021s here have turned out very well, with Cesar calling it, "a nice vintage, in quantity and quality."          

97 points Joe Czerwinski robertparker.com May  Drink 2025 - 2045