This is an aromatic wine, offering dried/cured meat, graphite, garrigue, cooked berries, and licorice.  The palate is dry, with blueberry, blackberry, and violet notes; more graphite; bramble; campfire; and a certain minerality.  Tannin is noticeable, silky and well integrated, with a touch of stem.  It is medium plus in body and length.

 

 

Clos de Mont-Olivet is a historic estate founded in the mid 16th century.  It is located just north of Avignon in the heart of Châteauneuf du Pape.  It has been called a beacon of traditionalism and has been a benchmark producer of Châteauneuf since the Sabon family acquired it through marriage in 1932.  The house style stresses freshness and elegance over sheer power.  The wines have complex aromatics and ripe, garrigue-laden fruit that speak of the stones that comprise the variety of estate soils.  The estate also produces four Côtes du Rhône and two Vin de Pays wines from estate fruit grown on the border between the Vaucluse and Drôme departments, where the soil is largely gravel and clay.  Today, the dynamic Thierry Sabon, grandson of the first Sabon owner, runs the show.

 

 

Grapes for this wine come from two vineyards.  The average age of the Grenache vines is 40; the Carignan was planted in1972 and the Syrah in 1983.  Grapes are harvested manually and destemmed, and the juice is gravity-fed into cement vessels.  Free run and press juice are vinified separately, mostly in cement, where each variety undergoes malolactic fermentation.  After the final blend is made, the wine ages in large oak barrels and vats.