More closed and restrained than normal is the 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape Le Secret des Sabon. The Sabon family has always been “secretive” about the blend used for this cuvee, but they do acknowledge that about 90% Grenache is combined with a field blend from vines over 100 years of age. Yields are microscopic, averaging 8-12 hectoliters per hectare, and the wine is aged one year in used 600-liter demi-muids. In the years it has been made (the first commercial vintage was 1998, although a small amount was made for the family in 1990, 1995, and 1996), this cuvee often borders on pure perfection (i.e., 1998 and 2001). The 2007 is too backward at this stage to go that far out on a limb, but it possesses a dense plum/purple color to the rim as well as an extraordinary perfume of cedarwood, tobacco leaf, creosote, licorice, black fruits, smoke, and a smell and taste of highly-charred meat with the essence of blood. This extraordinarily full-bodied, but forebodingly backward wine is more inaccessible than the 1998 or 2001 were at a similar stage of development, but it is an enormous, massively-endowed Chateauneuf du Pape that represents the concentrated blood of an old vineyard. The finish is virtually endless, lasting well past a minute. It will benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age, and should drink well for 25-35 years thereafter. While this is one of Chateauneuf du Pape’s finest estates, it is not nearly as big as one might suspect given the market penetration they have enjoyed throughout the world. From their 42 acres of vines scattered among 15 separate Chateauneuf du Pape parcels, Roger Sabon produces four cuvees of red wine as well as a small quantity of white wines. Three of the red wines are based on old vine Grenache, and the limited production Le Secret des Sabon comes from a 100+- year-old parcel of primarily Grenache and other field varietals that are cropped at incredibly tiny yields of less than one-half ton of fruit per acre. The property is currently managed by Jean-Jacques Sabon with his son-in-law, Didier Negron, who has been the oenologist since 2001. The history of this estate is intriguing as the first estate bottled wine was made in 1921, when the property was run by Seraphin Sabon, who had three sons, Joseph (the founder of Clos du Mont-Olivet), Noel (who started the Domaine Chante Cigale), and Roger (who created this estate in 1952). All of the following offerings are traditionally made wines, based largely on Grenache, that spend 12-15 months in foudres. Occasionally, a small percentage is aged in small, 3- to 4-year-old oak barrels. The only exceptions are the Cuvee Prestige, which is aged mostly in foudres and small new oak (25-30%), and the Secret des Sabon, which is aged in one-year-old demi-muids. 2007 may be the strongest vintage across the board that I have ever tasted at Roger Sabon.Importer: Eric Solomon, European Cellars, Charlotte, NC: tel. (704) 358-1565
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