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This is not a typical choice for a Monday night wine.  But I asked my sister to go select something from the growing stack of brown bag covered bottles by my desk.  She broght me a few ounce pour so I could practice some sensory analysis with this wine (This kind of olfactory exercise can be a lot of fun and will provide a more objective critique of any food or beverage.  If somebody, myself included, sees a wine label that says Châteauneuf-du-Pape, we're predisposed to think highly of this wine).
The color: beautiful ruby red that is clear...nearly translucent.
The aromas are very subtle.  This wine has that old-world dusty smell that allowed me to guess where it was from, but overall it is what many would call tight, meaning its smells and flavors are masked by its youth.  None-the-less I get a little bit of strawberry (my sister said red Jello) and a gravely minerality.  The alcohol (14%) really comes through on the nose here, only adding to the difficulty of picking up other aromas.
The wine has a solid body: decent acid, good tannins, and overall balance that transitions to a finish where the berry flavors are even more pronounced.  There just isn't a lot of depth to this product yet.
In my opinion, this bottle needs 2-3 more years before being opened.  I'm saving half the bottle to see how the flavors and smells open up over night.  If I had to give this wine a score right now, I'd have to stay around the 87-88 point range.  That's a let down when taken into account the bottle sells for $45.  For that much money I expect nothing less than an A effort.  But again, this wine hasn't seen its prime yet.
Lesson learned: wine is fun!!  I know that the 2007 vintage from Châteauneuf-du-Pape is being hyped up as one of the best in a long time.  Unfortunately I haven't tried that many of the CDPs yet.  This Domaine Lafond shows potential, but for the time being I'd have to take my money elsewhere. 
Who has tasted some of the 2007 Châteauneuf-du-Papes and could recommend a wine to me?  I'm working on writing my Christmas list...
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