Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018 MG

Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018 MG is a Grenache-led Rhône red magnum from Châteauneuf-du-Pape with red plum, black cherry and peppered clove. The 1500 ml bottle is a smart format for Clos des Papes’ 2018. It carries the estate’s silky power, with spice tucked deep into the fruit. Large foudres leave a calm frame around the finish.

About the Wine
Clos des Papes draws this 2018 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from a wide spread of estate parcels, with Grenache leading and Mourvèdre and Syrah adding darker tones. The vines stand on galets roulés, sandy soils, and clay-limestone across the appellation. Each soil leaves a different mark in the glass. The stones echo in the wine’s warm cherry core. The sand shows in the airy lift that makes this 15% Rhône red feel so polished in magnum. The clay-limestone side gives the finish its slow grip and leather edge. The 2018 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape MG spent 18 to 24 months in large French oak foudres. That ageing leaves the oak in a broad background role. It shapes the clove and black pepper, and the old-saddle note sits inside the red plum and black cherry. The wine is dry and built with a calm sense of scale. MG marks the 1500 ml bottle, a format that suits the wine’s long, unhurried development. The texture feels lithe and carefully polished, with the spice drawn out through a long foudre-aged finish.

Tasting Notes
Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018 MG opens with red plum, black cherry and a warm line of clove that grows after ten minutes in a wide glass, then settles into mulled strawberry. Air brings black pepper, dried thyme, leather and a faint orange-peel note above a saddle-leather base that feels very Clos des Papes in this polished and fragrant 2018 register from the Avril cellar. The palate is medium to full bodied and silky, with tannins that glide through the fruit and leave a fine mineral drag from the clay-limestone parcels for all its 15% alcohol. Its magnum rhythm shows in the finish, where cherry skin, sweet spice and old leather stretch out with the calm pacing of a wine built in large French foudres. Drink 2020-2040.

Food Pairing
Pour this 2018 magnum with rib of beef, slow-cooked lamb shoulder or venison haunch when the dish carries rosemary and a dark pan jus. The wine’s red plum and black pepper meet game flavors directly, and the foudre spice picks up clove in a long braise or a peppered crust. For a regional match, choose daube provençale with orange peel and olives or a leg of Sisteron lamb rubbed with thyme. Aged Comté, Tomme de Savoie or a firm sheep’s cheese bring out the wine’s leather note and keep the finish savory. The 1500 ml bottle has the pace for a table where the roast arrives late and the cheese stays out after the main course.

Producer
Clos des Papes is the Avril family’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape domaine, and its most telling habit is the decision to draw all selected estate sites from old vines and mixed soils into one red cuvée each year. The name points to a walled vineyard near the old papal castle, a detail that gives the label a direct link to the village skyline and its pale limestone ruins seen from many of the family’s plots. Paul-Vincent Avril now leads the domaine, following a line of Avrils associated with careful vineyard selection and the calm confidence that marks the Clos des Papes cellar in both vineyard pacing and élevage. The estate parcels run over galets roulés, sand and clay-limestone across Châteauneuf-du-Pape, with the magnum holding those pieces in a slower frame through sunny cherry, perfumed pepper and a firm leather-streaked finish. The cellar keeps the imprint clear through long élevage in large foudres, with the 2018 showing clove and old leather inside its red fruit after air and the oak reading as a broad rounded shape. The 2018 MG shows that house thinking in a very practical way, with a broad fruit core at opening and black pepper that keeps building after an hour in the glass which is one of the small pleasures of this bottle size.

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