2015 Chateau de Beaucastel Hommage a Jacques Perrin Chateauneuf du Pape 750 ml

This 2015 Château de Beaucastel’s Hommage à Jacques Perrin is an epic wine—a memory maker. In a glowing 98-point review, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate called the 2015 Hommage à Jacques “prodigious,” asking, “How many wines in this world can be so huge yet so lacking the feeling of weight?” The Advocate continued, “This rating will prove to be conservative once a few months have passed.” That’s called a 100-point wine in the wings, or, as Jeb Dunnuck put it in his 99-point review, “the wine of the vintage.” As you might expect, our allocation is tiny—only one foudre was produced in total.

Being labeled “wine of the vintage” in any year merits serious attention; it’s the mark of the best wine among thousands and thousands. Being labeled the Southern Rhône’s “wine of the vintage” in 2015, however, is another story. Awarded 97 points by Wine Spectator, the 2015 vintage was one of the greatest growing seasons in the Southern Rhône in recent memory. Sun was abundant throughout the spring and summer months, and days were hot and dry. Cool nights preserved acidity in the grapes and late summer rains quenched the vines’ thirst just before harvest. The resulting wines were breathtaking: fresh and elegant yet powerful. And at the top of the heap, Beaucastel’s Hommage à Jacques Perrin.  

Named in honor of one of the early visionaries of the Perrin family that owns Beaucastel, the 2015 Hommage à Jacques Perrin was harvested from a single plot of pristinely manicured vines —mostly Mourvèdre—in the northern reaches of Châteauneuf du Pape. The rocky soil is justly famous, littered with the region’s famous gallets: rounded pebbles that soak up the sun during the day and release heat slowly throughout the night, aiding ripening. Tremendous aging potential is a given, as is tremendous enjoyment.

You never forget the first time you try it, and if you’re lucky enough to taste multiple vintages, the experience only becomes more meaningful. Our own Sur Lucero MS remembers his first taste of the 1989 vintage, and “I remember the meaty-savory notes vividly to this day,” he says.