My wine reviews are written from the point of view of a rank amateur with no formal training, based on a sample size of one bottle of unknown storage history. These notes are primarily for my own records and future reference and are published here for interest only.

I bought this bottle from the Co-Op in Lichfield: it cost around £6 if memory serves, which it usually doesn’t these days. I’d imagine many people buy this due to the fame of the similarly-named Châteauneuf-Du-Pape wine, which sells for rather more than this one.

La Châsse Du Pape, like its Newcastle cousin, is a Southern Rhône wine. The Rouge Réserve is a blend of 60% Grenache, 35% Syrah, and 5% Cinsault and Mourvèdre. It’s sold by Maison Gabriel Meffre under the Côtes du Rhône AOC, as it doesn’t meet the requirements for the winery’s local and more specific Gigondas AOC because the wine is blended from several Rhône vineyards’ production. It has an alcohol content of 14%, due to the high proportion of sugar-rich Grenache. More details can be found on their annoyingly Flash-heavy website.

I chose a 2007, as that year is meant to be one of the best for Southern Rhône wines specifically, due to particularly good local weather — and because it was what was on the shelf. The bottle and label are good quality and evocative, with a crest both moulded into the glass and printed on the plastic cork reading SOLIS TERRAEQUE VINUM FRUCTUS, which means something like “wine, the fruit of the sun and the earth”.

This wine accompanied a Mediterranean chicken dish with olives and tomatoes (chopped and sun-dried), which I cooked from a recipe out of the well-written Readers’ Digest Healthy One-Dish Cooking book. Unprompted, a family member commented how nice the wine was, which is a good sign.

It’s a complex, heavy, fruity and strong wine. My best attempt at describing the general impression on the nose is “fertile”: like the smell of the countryside without the manure overtones. The bottle promised spicy and vanilla tastes — I could detect the former but not the latter, although a quick sniff of a bottle of vanilla essence as a reference did help to understand the suggestion. I wonder if I would have made the link without the label text, though...?

Irritatingly, the remainder of the bottle had to languish in the fridge for three days before I could finish it. As with the other wines I’ve tried, the fruit tastes diminished significantly and the alcohol “kick” became more pronounced. I really must get some half-bottles or marbles for storage to avoid drinking half the wine when it’s past its best. Interestingly, a significant taste like the aftertaste of very dark chocolate developed in the last glass.

I’d certainly buy another one of these (update: I have), and if this is typical of Grenache-based wines, I’m looking forward to the next two in the queue: Salduba, a Spanish Garnacha varietal (update: very good for under a fiver from Waitrose, didn’t give it enough attention for a review); and Domaine du Joncier Lirac Classique, another Rhône blend.