Dom. Roger Sabon
CDP Reserve
Chateauneuf du Pape
2015

The producer

Founded in 1952 by Roger Sabon, the family estate today has a total vineyard area of 50 hectares. 18 hectares are in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, in some of the best parts of the commune, including La Crau, Courthezon, and Les Cabrieres and with an average vine age of over 50 years old. Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, Mourrvede dominate the Chateauneuf vineyards, and Didier Negron (married to a Sabon) has been winemaker since 2004. We currently list the Cuvees Reserve and Prestige, which are powerful Grenache-led blends and arguably some of the finest wines to be produced in Chateauneuf-du-Pape today.

The wine

Cuvee Reserve is a blend of 70% Grenache, with 20% Syrah and 10% Cinsault - all from 65-year-old vines. The fruit is entirely destemmed, and fermentation takes place in small cement vats and small stainless steel tanks, and is followed by up to a month long maceration. Finally ageing lasts for around 18-24 months in large French oak foudres. Sabons wines are concentrated and multi-layered, with great complexity and balance. Production is less than 1,500 cases per year.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.