I was chatting to a winemaker recently over dinner, and I confided in him an insecurity of mine.

I explained that while I didn’t normally find it difficult to describe the style of any given Rhône vintage, I found it peculiarly challenging to succinctly summarise that of 2022.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I feel the same way.’ It helped put my mind at rest. But I’m still determined to get to grips with this slippery customer.

In any given year, wines tend to perform rather like flocks of birds or shoals of fish: there might be smaller sub-groups or individual outliers, but the majority move in the same direction to create a general vintage style.

The 2022, however, is unusually chaotic.

The season

Lewis Bungener of Clos de Caveau says ‘2022 was a very particular vintage – one that initially caused real concern.’

Between 15 October 2021 and 1 September 2022, just 300mm of rain fell in the southern Rhône, compared to an average of 600mm.

Combined with the intense heat (it was the hottest May on record) many vines simply shut down and stopped growing in order to conserve water.

‘The rain that eventually came in late summer changed everything,’ says Bungener.

‘The effect was extraordinary: what had threatened to become heavy wines with dry, harsh tannins found an incredible balance, gaining freshness and definition. That said, producers who misjudged maturity timings did still suffer.’

Cécile Dusserre of Domaine de Montvac agrees, saying: ‘We had two nights of rain on 7 and 8 September, and we finished harvesting on 14 September.’

Rain at harvest can cause grapes to rot, but conditions had been so hot and dry, the water was welcome.

‘It allowed for a more relaxed juice and lowered the concentration of the berries,’ says Dusserre.

Though controlled irrigation is permitted in Vacqueyras, it was gratifying to see that some of the best wines this year were produced by estates that don’t water their vines, such as Domaine de Montvac, Domaine Montirius and Domaine la Monardière.

It proves that even in very dry years, Vacqueyras can still produce excellent wines, which bodes well for an uncertain future.

The tasting

These extreme conditions created a series of obstacles and pitfalls that vignerons were forced to navigate. Not everyone succeeded.

The year started with a huge abundance of grapes. Those who failed to drop fruit often struggled to eventually ripen all their berries, ending up with green, unripe flavours.

The lack of rain during the growing season produced very small berries, with little juice but thick skins. For some, excessive extraction led to tough tannins.

Intense heat can cause many problems, and some wines suffered from high alcohol – though not as many as I expected. Instances of low acidity or pruney fruit were thankfully rare.

And finally, some wines failed to make the grade simply due to excessive oak. Layering oak tannins on top of robust fruit tannins produced some inelegant, clunky wines.

But many producers managed to sidestep some or all these potential snares to create wines of balance and drinkability.

The verdict

Having had a few years in bottle to come together, many are now looking better than they did from barrel – both whites and reds.

I felt happy to recommend around half the wines I tasted, and they are featured below.

And many of those who did succeed really excelled.

As Bungener says: ‘The vintage across the region produced a mixed picture but for those who managed the conditions well, 2022 produced wines of real distinction: a rare combination of richness and fullness alongside finesse and freshness.’

This tasting helped me to understand this confounding year. The key is this: the best wines excel despite the vintage, not because of it.

The best Vacqueyras 2022 wines in bottle

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Readers of this column might remember a story about Château L’Ermite d’Auzan in Costières de Nîmes, and how it successfully uses homemade essential oils instead of copper to fight disease.

It turns out this isn’t the only example of how this Southern Rhône appellation is a hotbed of experimentation.

Producers are trialling a raft of new varieties and fresh approaches in the vineyard.

Once considered a brackish backwater, Costières de Nîmes is fast becoming one of the most dynamic appellations in the Rhône.

Rhône-sur-Mer

Costières de Nîmes is one of the 11 Rhône Valley appellations that surround the central southern Côtes-du-Rhône growing area.

Though considered part of the Rhône family, all have an independent appellation rulebook and unique character.

The word costières means ‘little hills’, and this pebbly coastal appellation is made up of several vast banks of galets roulés.

It borders the Camargue regional nature park, with its wild horses, bulls and flamingos. It shares some soils and grapes with Châteauneuf to the north, but it feels like a different world.

Despite the quality of some of the wines, I’ve always detected something of an inferiority complex when visiting.

But a recent visit by legendary ‘oenogeologist’ Georges Truc [please link] has given local growers confidence in their terroir.

Cyril Marès of Mas Carlot says, ‘it helped cure our imposter syndrome’.

Viva la VIFA

The Rhône Valley has more grapes than most regions to play with, but that’s not stopping them from testing out some new ones – mainly to combat disease and climate change.

These are known as VIFAs (short for Variétés d'Intérêt à Fin d'Adapatation.)

Several Rhône appellations are doing this. The main AOC Côtes-du-Rhône, for example, is trying out whites Carignan Blanc, Floréal, Rolle (a.k.a. Vermentino) and red Vidoc.

I’m yet to taste a stunning Vidoc, so I’m pleased to see that Costières de Nîmes has selected a more promising line up.

The reds on trial are Italy’s Montepulciano and Spain’s Graciano (known locally as Morrastel). Both are at their limit of ripening here and have a track record of great things back home.

Whites varieties are Piquepoul Blanc and Tourbat (a.k.a. Malvoisie de Roussillon), both useful for their high acid levels.

There’s also the pink-skinned Souvignier Gris, a semi-aromatic grape with good acidity and low alcohol.

Rules around VIFAs are strict. Estates can plant up to 5% of their vineyard area with them, and individual wines can contain up to 10% in the final blend.

After a trial period of 10 years, appellation authorities will decide whether or not to embrace them more fully.

Organic -> biodynamic -> regenerative

Costières de Nîmes is a huge appellation – it makes 5% of all the wine produced in the Rhône Valley each year.

But it’s still relatively strong on sustainability – in 2025, 34% of production was certified organic or biodynamic, up from 29% in 2024 (the regional average is 23%).

Many of the best estates farm biodynamically, such as Château Beaubois, Château Mourgues du Grès and Terre des Chardons.

Leading organic producers include Mas Carlot, Château Saint Cyrgues, L’Ermite D’Auzan and Château de Montfrin.

The Gassier family, however, goes one step further. Michel Gassier’s two estates – Domaine Gassier and Château de Nages – were the first in France to be certified regenerative, in 2023.

There is no established definition of regenerative viticulture, but essentially it’s an approach which aims to restore and enhance soil health, biodiversity, local ecosystems and communities.

Michel’s daughter Isabel Gassier describes it as “a series of farming practices and social commitments”.

One such practice is adopting a ‘no till’ approach to vineyards to avoid disrupting underground fungi networks.

Instead, cover crops are grown to reduce erosion, aid water infiltration and provide feed for grazing animals.

Another undertaking is planting trees and hedgerows between parcels of vines to provide habitat for birds and animals. They prey on undesirable insects, reducing the need for insecticide.

They’ve also built high-quality lodging for seasonal workers, and share 15% of their profits with their employees.

‘It’s not a diploma, it’s perpetual improvement… based on observation and common sense,’ says Michael. ‘It encompasses everything that agriculture needs to think about.’

Does farming regeneratively make a difference to how the wines taste? With so many other variables it’s hard to say.

But one thing’s for certain – the Gassier family are now making thrilling, Cru-quality red and white Costières de Nîmes that serve as a beacon for the appellation.

Future perfect

As with any appellation of this size, it’s hard to generalise about quality.

There is some talk of further refining the map to create a kind of ‘Costières de Nîmes Villages’. Perhaps that will bring more focus.

Currently there are over 100 producers, but only a small minority produce wines to shout about. But they are testimony to this land’s potential.

By trialling new varieties and farming techniques they’re readying themselves for an uncertain future. But, in the short term at least, things have never looked brighter.

Wines worth trying from the Rhône’s wild west

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Nothing piques my interest more than an unknown estate from an unexceptional appellation that suddenly starts making brilliant wine.

It sparks an insatiable desire to discover what changed, and how they did it.

Over the past few years, Château la Borie in Suze-la-Rousse has been rapidly improving, culminating in its 2023 Syrah winning Best in Show at the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards.

A tasting of its 2024 Syrah proved that this wasn’t just a fluke. I paid them a visit to uncover the source of this transformation.

A new broom

When I first met Raphaël Knapp in 2019, he had just bought Château la Borie, so at that point he had no wine to show me.

For 15 years previously, Knapp had worked as an importer in California, specialising in artisanal French wines. Eventually he got homesick, and decided to return to his home country.

Suze-la-Rousse is one of the 21 named villages in the southern Rhône. Much of the flat plain that surrounds it is littered with small pebbles.

It’s a hot terroir best suited to punchy, warming reds but it rarely rivals Châteauneuf for complexity or Cairanne for finesse.

When he bought this 60ha estate, it was underperforming, making unremarkable Côtes du Rhône.

But Knapp thought the terroir had potential; he described it as a ‘sleeping beauty’. But my visit brought to mind a different story: that of the Wizard of Oz.

A tale of two terroirs

As I was driving through endless fields of sepia-coloured stones, I was unexpectedly transported to a technicolour landscape.

It turns out that Suze-la-Rousse is only partly stony – there’s also an outcrop of vibrant, ochre-coloured sandstone.

The change is so sudden that I originally assumed this incongruous soil must have been dumped on the path by some crooked builders.

Like some kind of yellow brick road, it opened out into vineyards that dazzled with colour – not just the yellow sands, but blue-green wild thyme, and bottle-green moss.

Could this be the source of the quality revolution at Château la Borie? On arriving, Knapp converted the estate to organic farming; but no, otherwise the vineyards themselves are little changed.

We went back to taste in the fairytale château itself, still stuck in time. But the wines were anything but antiquated. The whites and rosés are still work in progress, but the reds sizzled and popped with colour and flavour.

The two that stand out are both produced on that mustard-coloured sand – one a Grenache, the other a Syrah.

The Grenache has such purity and luminosity, it’s like a bowl of red berries in a stained-glass window. It’s a brilliant expression of Grenache, unhindered by excess body, alcohol or oak.

If anything, the Syrah is even better. The aromatics rise like smoke from the glass, as sharply defined as shadow puppets: bacon, menthol, pine resin and pink peppercorns.

Its complexity suggests a northern origin, but its volume and plenitude locate it firmly in the south.

Secrets of the cellar

If the vineyards are little changed since Knapp took over, then that confirms it, I thought – the magic must be conjured in the winery. We unlocked the doors and I stepped gingerly inside.

But when the curtain is pulled back, it’s the same old winery as before; a rickety metal staircase, tall concrete tanks and plain plastic buckets. No amphorae, no biodynamic dynamiser – not even a new oak barrel.

At the end of the 1939 MGM classic, the eponymous wizard turns out to be a fraud. But unlike him, Knapp has never claimed to be something he isn’t.

He’s just doing his best to make good wines with the set-up he’s inherited from the previous owners.

Thanks to Knapp’s courage, brains and heart, now we can see what this unloved estate was really capable of. He still has some self-doubt.

‘I’m constantly critical of myself and trying to be better,’ he says. ‘But I’m also surprised we managed to get to this quality so quickly.’

In the end, it turns out there was no great transformation in the vineyards or in the cellar. The alchemy is all just down to a new owner – Raphaël Knapp – the Wizard of Suze.

A new vision and a fresh pair of hands can make all the difference.

Château la Borie wines are imported to the UK by Clark Foyster Wines

Tasting eight Château la Borie wines:

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With increasingly unpredictable weather, organic farming in France isn’t getting any easier. To make matters worse, a French government agency has recently restricted the use of most copper fungicides – organic winemakers’ main defence against downy mildew, which can destroy entire crops if left unchecked.

But one winemaker in the southern Rhône believes he has an alternative. What’s more, the treatment is adaptable to vineyards around the world and he’s willing to share his findings for free.

Could this signal the end of winemakers’ reliance on this potentially toxic chemical?

Scroll down for five wine reviews for Château l’Ermite d’Auzan

Château l’Ermite d’Auzan

Located in the southern part of Costières de Nîmes, l’Ermite d’Auzan is a 100ha estate, 75ha of which is planted with 10 different grape varieties. Established in 1973, it’s currently in the hands of Jérôme Castillon and his son Tanguy, the fourth generation.

Tanguy has been developing a natural remedy to fight against downy mildew, with encouraging results: essential oils.

Just a stone’s throw from the Mediterranean Sea, the pebbly zone of Costières de Nîmes is the Rhône’s most southerly growing area. It’s also one of the region’s most dynamic appellations, and Château l’Ermite d’Auzan’s work on essential oils is just one example.

When I visited in January this year, we drove to their higher vineyards in a vintage Jeep.

Though not particularly elevated, you can see for miles across the fairly flat landscape surrounded by loftier landmarks in the distance: Pic St Loup to the west, the town of Uzès to the north, Les Baux de Provence to the east.

To the south, you can see vast saltwater ponds and the glittering Mediterranean beyond.

Herbal remedy

‘The idea was to find something to burn the fungus,’ says Tanguy.

‘At the very beginning, the idea of working with essential oils came from their well-known effects on the human body, since the active molecules involved are exactly the same ones we use. When a molecule such as thymol has antifungal and antibacterial properties for the human body, its effect on the vine is almost identical.’

Essential oils have been used in traditional medicines to treat people for hundreds of years. Thymol, for example, is extracted from thyme and is still used today in products such as Listerine mouthwash.

Tanguy is not the first person to come up with this idea; there have been successful experiments in treating downy mildew with essential oils in the past.

But a commercial estate using essential oils successfully at this scale, and the ability to remove copper use, is something quite extraordinary.

L’Ermite d’Auzan now sprays its whole vineyard with essential oils instead of copper.

Copper: A blessing and a curse

The estate was certified organic in 2020, then biodynamic in 2024. Like other producers working without synthetic chemicals, their armoury against diseases is severely limited.

Two of the most serious fungal threats that growers face are powdery mildew and downy mildew; if working organically, the first is typically treated with sulphur, the second with copper.

If used moderately, most winemakers agree that sulphur is relatively benign when sprayed in the vineyard. Copper, however, is more problematic. It’s a heavy metal that doesn’t break down, and accumulates in the topsoil.

It can be harmful to earthworms and soil microorganisms, and in large quantities can pose a threat to animals, birds and vineyard workers. And, according to Tanguy, ‘it burns the hairs of the roots of the plant and blocks [the uptake of] potassium and other trace elements’.

In July 2025, France’s National Agency for Food, Environment and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) decided to restrict the sale of most copper-based fungicides.

According to its website, ‘while copper is of great value in agriculture, its toxic effects are of increasing concern’. But with no obvious alternatives, some winemakers have been left wondering if they can continue to work organically.

Natural methods

He makes the oils himself. On the long driveway towards the winery are neat rows of 15 different types of aromatic plants, including thyme, rosemary, lavender, oregano, mint and curry plant (immortelle). He tried growing sage but it was eaten by rabbits.

Each contains a different active chemical compound, and Tanguy says he uses five different types of plant over the course of a growing season to prevent the mildew from building up a resistance.

After picking and drying a batch of herbs, he uses an alambic still to distil the oil. It’s a simple process: steam passes through the herbs, releasing volatile components, and when the steam cools the oils rise to the surface of the captured liquid.

‘It took time to find the right concentrations,’ he says, and a lot of trial and error. He uses 80ml-100ml of oregano essential oil per hectare of vines, whereas lavender essential oil requires 280ml-300ml per hectare.

To get the right strength before spraying, he had to mix the oils with water – not an easy task. The answer was to mix the oils into milk first, then to mix the milk with water. It’s a curative, rather than preventative, treatment, and it needs reapplying after it rains.

A testing vintage

The 2024 vintage featured regular rains during spring, and many estates throughout the Rhône Valley suffered from attacks of downy mildew.

Jérôme says that certain neighbouring estates were badly affected, with some vineyards completely destroyed. But L’Ermite d’Auzan suffered barely any mildew on its grapes, and saw no decrease in production. A result, the family says, of spraying with essential oils.

No longer spraying with copper has led to additional benefits in the vineyard. Since a first analysis in 2019, the soil pH has dropped from 8.3 to 7.7, which is beneficial to the microbiome. Over the same period, the percentage of organic matter in the soil has risen from 1.8% to 2.5%.

Tanguy has also noticed that there is now less of a gap between sugar and tannin ripeness in his grapes, which means lower alcohol levels in their wines.

Working with essential oils instead of copper does have one disadvantage however – it’s more labour intensive. He has to spray 15-17 times per year; the maximum before using the oils was 13.

I wondered if the aromatic oils might transfer their flavour to the resulting wine, but Tanguy reassured me that, ‘it doesn’t go into the plant, just on the leaves, then it’s burnt off by the sun’. In any case, the last treatment is in mid-July, long before harvest.

Spreading knowledge

Though sceptical to begin with, Jérôme is now convinced of the oils’ effectiveness. ‘I’m a student again,’ he says, ‘and my son is the teacher!’

They have since received visits from wineries as far afield as Lebanon and Greece, curious to replicate the Castillons’ success. Tanguy says that they don’t have to grow the same plants that he does; they can use other aromatic plants that are indigenous to their respective regions.

He has so many visitors, he says, because, ‘I’m not selling anything’ – he’s just happy to share his knowledge.

Next for Tanguy is a meeting with INRAE, the French agricultural research institute, to further develop this approach. He’s confident that if this method works for him, it can work for others.

If he’s right, this could be a turning point for organic viticulture – and not a moment too soon.

Château l’Ermite d’Auzan wines tasted:

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A wet spring and a chilly September made for a challenging year in the Rhône in 2024 – there are some brilliant wines, but it’s inconsistent.

A handful of producers played the vintage with flair however, making desirable wines across the board.

It would be of no surprise to Rhône lovers if this list included revered estates such as Domaine Jean-Louis Chave in the Northern Rhône and Clos des Papes in the south, however.

Here then are six smaller, under-the-radar producers that excelled in 2024.

François et Fils

If you visit the François brothers, Yoann and Erwan, you might be surprised to encounter a herd of 25 cattle on their estate – but milk and cheese is still their main source of income.

They also have a few hectares of Côte-Rôtie however, including prize parcels of lieux-dits Les Rochains and Rozier.

The family started bottling in 1991, but it was Yoann’s arrival in 2004 that helped this side of the business take off. In good vintages, their cuvée classique can represent a very smart buy.

Key wines in 2024: François et Fils Côte-Rôtie; François et Fils Côte-Rôtie Rozier.

Domaine Belle

It wasn’t the easiest year for Crozes-Hermitage producers, but those around the village of Larnage – such as Domaine Belle – fared better than most.

It’s an organic, family-owned estate with a history that stretches back for generations with holdings in St-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage and Hermitage itself.

They are unusually adept at making white wines, so the cooler, fresher 2024 played into their hands.

The domaine’s white Hermitage and white Crozes-Hermitage Roche Blanche are among the best in their respective appellations this year.

Key wines in 2024: Hermitage blanc, Crozes-Hermitage blanc Roche Blanche, Crozes-Hermitage rouge Les Pierrelles.

Domaine Franck Balthazar

Originally established in 1931 by Casimir Balthazar, the estate has been in the hands of his grandson Franck since 2002.

With only 3.5ha of Cornas, it’s not a large estate but his wines are well worth seeking out.

All of his Cornas cuvées are made with 100% whole bunch in 2024. His wines are approachable and perfumed, which chimes with the style of the vintage, one that’s more about delicacy and finesse than power.

Key wines in 2024: Cornas Juliette, Cornas Casimir, Cornas Sans Souffre Ajouté, Cornas Chaillot, Cornas Hommage.

Clos de Caveau

This Vacqueyras estate was briefly owned by the legendary Steven Spurrier, who sold it in 1976 to Gérard and Nicole Bungener.

They were organic pioneers in the region, starting on their journey in 1980, becoming certified in 1989.

Today it’s their son Henri Bungener who runs the domaine after a career as a psychoanalyst in London; he is assisted in turn by his son Lewis.

They make a fresh, detailed and transparent style of Vacqueyras, both in red and white. They also own a small plot of Gigondas, which is equally approachable and delicious.

Key wines in 2024: Gigondas rouge Champvermeil, Vacqueyras rouge Carmin Brillant, Vacqueyras rouge Lao Muse, Vacqueyras rouge Fruit Sauvage, Vacqueyras blanc Louis d’Or.

Domaine des Bosquets

A leading producer in Gigondas for many years now, Domaine des Bosquets perhaps can’t be described as ‘under the radar’.

But it deserves to be flagged up nonetheless, as this is Julien Brechet’s most impressive set of wines to date.

By extracting less, turning away from new oak and using more stems, his style has developed in a more restrained and elegant direction.

It’s a brilliant vintage for Gigondas, and an important one in the evolution of this estate.

Key wines in 2024: Gigondas Le Lieu Dit…, Gigondas Le Plateau…, Gigondas La Colline…, Gigondas Les Routes…, Gigondas Les Roches…, Gigondas Les Hauts-Lieux, Gigondas Le Regard Loin, Gigondas Le Bout du Monde.

Domaine Juliette Avril

An estate that’s been going from strength to strength over the past five years, Domaine Juliette Avril made some excellent red Châteauneufs in 2024, from its tradition bottling all the way up to its cuvées spéciales.

Today the estate is managed by Marie Lucile Brun, who took over from her mother Juliette Avril in 1988.

Marie Lucile is assisted by her son Stephan Brun who joined the estate in 2000. They own 18ha in Châteauneuf, including some very old vines which go into their impressive cuvée Maxence.

Key wines in 2024: Châteauneuf-du-Pape rouge, Châteauneuf-du-Pape rouge Maxence, Châteauneuf-du-Pape rouge Les Vignes de Juliette.

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When researching articles, I’m often surprised that winemakers are so willing to share their professional secrets. Even my cheekier questions are usually answered with candour.

There is one estate that has always remained inscrutable, however: Château Rayas.

Scroll down for notes and scores for 12 incredible wines from Rayas and Fonsalette

On 18 November 2025, I hosted a tasting of Rayas and its sister property Château de Fonsalette at London private members’ club 67 Pall Mall. We tasted the 1998, 1999 and 2000 red from both estates, and the same vintages of Pignan and Fonsalette Cuvée Syrah.

One week later, I received sad news. The owner, Emmanuel Reynaud, had passed away, at the age of just 61. Social media continues to bear witness to bottles being opened all around the world to toast his life and work.

Emmanuel was kind enough to let me taste from barrel every year. He didn’t have to; the wines all sold out on allocation so he didn’t need to spend time with journalists.

Yet despite his willingness to answer questions, I never cracked the code – the secret to this estate’s unique style. I’m not sure anyone has.

But over the years I’ve gleaned some insights into Reynaud’s way of working, and got to know the different styles from his three estates.

An estate apart

Despite its arcane reputation, Château Rayas is not an old estate in the context of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It was founded in 1880 by Albert Reynaud after he went deaf, changing careers from notary to winemaker.

The two subsequent generations to manage the estate, his son Louis Reynaud and grandson Jacques Reynaud, were eccentric characters, and they rarely welcomed visitors. Jacques died suddenly and without children in 1997, so his nephew Emmanuel Reynaud took the reins.

Unlike Bordeaux and Burgundy, Châteauneuf has no official classification system. This didn’t stop Louis from printing ‘Premier Grand Cru’ on labels for Château Rayas, much to the exasperation of local authorities.

But he had a point. Château Rayas is indeed a Châteauneuf, but it bears little resemblance to other wines made in the appellation. It is a different breed.

The Rayas style

Rayas is pure Grenache – unusual in Châteauneuf – and is immediately recognisable by its perfume alone.

It’s highly aromatic, with notes of crushed strawberries, blood orange and Provençal herbs. Scents of Turkish delight, rose, mint, violets, strawberry jam and cocoa nibs are also characteristic.

With time in bottle comes fresh mushroom, forest floor and smoke. (And it’s not just Rayas; similar aromatic markers are found across all his red wines).

Rayas is never dark in colour; it’s a transparent strawberry-red.

Its shape and presence in the mouth are moulded by the vintage. Cooler years such as 2008 are refreshing, acid-driven, clear and herbal. Warmer years like 2012 and 2005 are generous, opulent, luxurious in texture.

Rayas can be powerful, but it’s rarely tannic. The wines strongly reflect the growing conditions experienced – and they always find something positive to say, even in difficult years.

Making of a marvel

So where does this style – pale, aromatic, delicate but ageworthy – come from? There are certain things we know for sure.

The 23ha Rayas estate, which takes its name from lieu-dit Le Rayas, has just as much land planted with trees as vines. It feels cooler and shadier than neighbouring vineyards. The vines are planted in sand, which often gives wines with a pale tint and very fine tannins.

The estate is divided into three parts according to their exposure to the sun: Le Levant (the rising); Le Coeur (the heart); and Le Couchant (the setting). They give slightly different expressions which together build a complex whole.

The other Châteauneuf produced here, Pignan, is made from a small parcel of vines in the lieu-dit of the same name just to the north of Rayas. It’s about one third the size of the Rayas vineyard, and is also pure Grenache.

They are made the same way. Yields are very low, typically 15hl/ha, and Emmanuel was always among the last to harvest; he would wait for the first rains of autumn before picking. The bunches are fermented whole, with stems contributing texture and aromatic complexity.

In the cellar, extraction is very gentle, making for a light tannic weave. Also, the wines are only sold when deemed ready to drink, usually around 10 years old, giving time for any stem tannins to limber up. Large oak barrels – never new – are used to age the wine for 16 months before bottling.

Mystery remains

None of these factors, except the site itself of course, is unique to Rayas. So just what is it that makes these wines so distinctive?

Could it be using semi-carbonic maceration, or even a touch of botrytis? Emmanuel says no.

Could it be a unique strain of indigenous yeast, or the selection of plant material? Perhaps.

Though Pignan can offer immense drinking pleasure in a similar stylistic vein, it rarely benefits from a side-by-side comparison with Rayas, which is a superior terroir. Only certain vintages, such as 2011, can stand proudly beside the grand vin.

Rayas, Pignan and Château de Fonsalette are all made at Rayas; any barrels deemed unsuitable for these cuvées are blended together to make La Pialade. It displays the same compelling house style, if rarely the refinement or concentration, of the other reds made here.

There are whites too. Château Rayas makes a richly textured white Châteauneuf from 50% Clairette, 50% Grenache Blanc. Château de Fonsalette’s fresher white uses these two grapes and a little Marsanne. They have even made sweet wines in the distant past.

Perfecting the blend: Château de Fonsalette

Louis Reynaud acquired Château de Fonsalette in 1945. It’s located near the village of Lagarde-Paréol, 20km due north of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. These 12ha are spread across a similarly sandy terroir to Rayas, though here it’s scattered with small pebbles.

It could theoretically be labelled Côtes du Rhône Villages Massif d’Uchaux, as it lies within that Named Village appellation, but the wines are labelled simply Côtes du Rhône.

The methods of production are the same, but what marks out Fonsalette is Reynaud’s mastery of not just Grenache, but also of Cinsault and Syrah.

Tasting the pure Cinsault component with Emmanuel has long been a highlight of my year – it’s by far the purest, most beautiful example of this underrated variety I’ve ever encountered.

The Syrah component is highly aromatic, brimming with smoke, black pepper and bacon fat. It makes for a darker wine than Rayas or Pignan, and one with a more chiselled tannic structure. It can happily age for 30 years and more, becoming increasingly complex with time.

When the Syrah is productive enough, they make a separate mono-variety bottling. Compared to most southern Syrahs it’s more savoury, bony and leafy – you could be forgiven for guessing northern Rhône.

The Vacqueyras cornucopia: Château des Tours

The third of the Reynaud properties, bought by Louis in 1935, is near Sarrians in the far west of Vacqueyras. This is where Emmanuel cut his teeth; it was originally owned by his father Bertrand. At 40ha, it’s by far the family’s largest estate. Yet again, the soils are primarily sand.

Due to its size, the range is broader here, with the Vacqueyras and Côtes du Rhône wines under the Château des Tours label and a range of IGP wines called Domaine des Tours.

There are many curiosities to explore – a pure Clairette offers aromas of fresh vegetables as well as fruits, and a pure Merlot – often released with around 15 years in bottle – is miles better than anyone might reasonably expect a Rhône Merlot to be.

Wines produced at Château des Tours:

• Château des Tours Vacqueyras Rouge
• Château des Tours Vacqueyras Blanc
• Château des Tours Côtes du Rhône Grande Réserve Rouge
• Château des Tours Côtes du Rhône Grande Réserve Blanc
• Château des Tours Côtes du Rhône Rouge
• Château des Tours Côtes du Rhône Blanc
• Les Tours IGP Vaucluse Grenache Blanc
• Domaine des Tours IGP Vaucluse Rouge
• Domaine des Tours IGP Vaucluse Merlot
• Domaine des Tours IGP Vaucluse Merlot Syrah
• Domaine des Tours IGP Vaucluse Clairette
• Parisy Vin de France Rosé

A great magician…

The wines from this estate can offer great value compared to Rayas and Fonsalette, still displaying all the classic markers of Reynaud’s winemaking, but at a much lower price tag. That said, speculation has pushed up the prices of all of Reynaud’s wines dramatically on the secondary market – much to his dismay.

The three estates have now passed into the hands of Emmanuel’s children. I wonder what changes we will see, and whether they’ll ever reveal what makes these wines so unique.

To be honest, I hope they don’t. Of course in some ways I’d love to know the secret. But sometimes the spectacle is all the more thrilling when the magicians don’t reveal how it’s done.

Tasting Reynaud’s legacy:

Related articles

• Matt Walls: Reflections on 2025 and his favourite Rhône wines of the year
• Rhône 2024 en primeur: Full report and the vintage’s top-scoring wines
• ‘Vieille Julienne’s Réservé is Grenache in excelsis’: Matt Walls on a Châteauneuf stand out

Last year’s calendar goes in the bin; this year’s, freshly peeled from its cellophane wrapper, is fixed to the wall.

The reassuring customs of Christmas and New Year lend a steadying hand through this time of endings and new beginnings.

One tradition I like to keep is counting down my top 10 wines of the year. The most memorable wines, those that have moved me, those that have made the greatest impression. Counting my blessings.

This year the process brought some painful recent closures into focus. But it also flagged up hopeful new beginnings.

Farewells

Let’s start with the losses.

On 18 November I was honoured to host a tasting of 12 wines made by Emmanuel Reynaud of Château Rayas.

A week later, he was no longer with us. I could easily have filled this list with those wines; instead, I’ll dedicate an article to the tasting early next year.

Two days after Emmanuel, Peter Fraser of Yangarra in McLaren Vale also passed away, aged just 51. He made some of the finest Grenache I’ve ever tasted. I wish he could have made more.

And in June, we lost Pierre Clape of Domaine Clape. He was a teacher before he joined his father Auguste in the vineyards. No one taught me more about Cornas than he did.

For estates touched by tragedy, it will take time for those left behind to find pleasure or excitement in the new.

New beginnings

The birth of a new cuvée feels insignificant by comparison. But for estates launching a new wine, it’s a cause for cautious optimism.

In fact, we can easily underestimate what a new bottling means to a producer. A new label often hides years of rumination and experimentation. Winemakers agonise over blends, barrels, the cuvée name – any number of details.

And what if their customers reject their new creation, into which they’ve poured so much care and consideration? Releasing a new cuvée takes courage.

Especially when your product goes against the grain. In the 1980s, Châteauneuf-du-Pape estates traditionally made just one red wine, and perhaps a white.

But in 1986, François Perrin at Château de Beaucastel bottled an old vine selection of pure Roussanne. It was fascinating to taste that first vintage again this year; four decades on, it’s still going strong. How right he was.

More recently, brothers David and Benjamin Duclaux in Côte-Rôtie starting bottling a single vineyard Coteaux de Tupin.

I revisited their first vintage again this year, the 2018. Their 2019 is arguably even better, but there’s something special about tasting the first iteration of a wine; a bold decision vindicated.

Every time I open one I want to pat them on the back.

I tasted it with David’s son Matteo, who had just joined the estate. More green shoots worth celebrating.

Another first on my list is from Domaine l’Anglore. In 2023 it bottled two new single-vineyard Tavels, named Vaucrose and Les Sables; wines that represent confident steps forward as this appellation gradually regains its former glory.

For many of us, Christmas is a time for both looking back and looking forward.

It’s also a time to share our most treasured bottles with people we love. We have winemakers like these – both past and present – to thank for that.

Matt’s favourite Rhône wines of 2025

Related articles

• Grenache in excelsis
• Smell: How our most overlooked sense of smell can ground us
• Rhône 2024: Vintage report & top wines 

On the west bank of the Rhône river, whites and rosés lead the pack, with a good showing from Tavel this year.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring Lirac & Tavel wines

Thibaut Pfifferling of Domaine l’Anglore describes the growing season as ‘a big battle,’ resulting in very small yields but well balanced wines with ‘not much acidity, but good salinity’.

It’s an appellation that improves from year to year, with an increasing number of characterful wines to explore.

Lirac’s whites are very consistent, combining fullness and freshness to good effect – there are many good value options to consider.

Laudun, the Rhône’s newest cru, is still finding its way; whites are generally better than reds.

See all Lirac wines tasted

See all Tavel wines tasted

Key Lirac & Tavel producers in 2024

• Domaine l’Anglore – Tavel
• Château d’Aqueria – Lirac
• Château de Montfaucon – Lirac

Best-value Lirac & Tavel wines in 2024

• Château d’Aqueria, Lirac blanc 2024
• Alain Jaume & Fils, Domaine Clos de Sixte, Lirac rouge 2024
• Château Saint-Roch, Tradition, Lirac rouge 2024

Compare vintages: See coverage from previous years

Lirac & Tavel 2023: Report and top-scoring wines

Lirac & Tavel 2022: Report and top-scoring wines

Lirac & Tavel 2021: Report and top-scoring wines

See the full Rhône 2024 vintage report

Top-scoring Lirac & Tavel wines in 2024

Wines rated 97+ are featured in the main report

Related articles

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• Natural wine: A lens on the future of wine and winemaking
• Best rosé wines beyond Provence

Gigondas is undoubtedly the most successful appellation in 2024.

The reds have tension, good acidity and plentiful fine tannins. A standout producer this year is Julien Brechet of Domaine des Bosquets and he describes 2024 as ‘a very honest vintage,’ meaning that it’s highly expressive of terroir, detailed and precise.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for these regions’ best wines

The tannins aren’t muscular, they’re fine and pixellated; they can be a little angular in places however, requiring a few years in bottle to file them down.

Gigondas whites are even better. The style can be quite challenging though: they are all about texture and minerality, and will take a few years to open up, so take note of drinking windows. When they’re ready, they’ll be detailed and attention grabbing.

Neighbouring Beaumes de Venise also did very well in 2024. The reds have real impact and brightness of fruit, and are mostly well balanced.

The sweet Muscats have good acidity and moderate alcohol – a vintage to buy if you like the style.

Further down the slope in Vacqueyras, Damien Vache of Domaine la Monardière says that growers here were relatively unaffected by mildew.

The reds are medium-bodied, well balanced and drinkable, though some lack concentration.

Whites varied stylistically, but the quality is largely good.

See all Gigondas wines tasted

See all Vacqueyras wines tasted

See all Beaumes de Venise wines tasted

Key Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise producers in 2024

• Château de St Cosme – Gigondas
• Domaine des Bosquets – Gigondas
• Domaine Saint-Damien – Gigondas
• Domaine Santa Duc – Gigondas
• Moulin de la Gardette – Gigondas
• Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux – Vacqueyras
• Domaine des Bernardins – Beaumes de Venise

Best-value Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise wines in 2024

• Le Clos des Cazaux, Les Clefs d’Or, Vacqueyras 2024
• Domaine des Bernardins, Beaumes de Venise 2024

Compare vintages: See coverage from previous years

Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise 2023: Report and top-scoring wines

Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise 2022: Report and top-scoring wines

Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise 2021: Report and top-scoring wines

See the full Rhône 2024 vintage report

Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise wines in 2024

Wines rated 97+ are featured in the main report

Related articles

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• Walls: Vacqueyras 2015 vs 2016 – how are they drinking now?
• Walls’ hidden gems: Domaine La Ferme St-Martin, Beaumes de Venise

It’s a decent vintage for reds in both Cairanne and Rasteau. In Cairanne, the wines are precise and drinkable thanks to their bright acidity and measured levels of alcohol.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring wines

Most don’t have the structure or concentration for long ageing, but they can be opened straight away and will likely give four or five years of enjoyment.

The whites might not be as reliable as in other appellations this year, but there are still many good wines to choose from.

Rasteau’s dry reds are in a similar quality and style to Cairanne’s. When the tannins are ripe and there’s sufficient concentration, the 2024s offer elegance and drinkability.

The limited selection of Vinsobres I tasted were less exciting, so there are just a few that made the selection.

See all Rasteau wines tasted

See all Cairanne wines tasted

See all Vinsobres wines tasted

Key Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres producers in 2024

• Domaine de l’Oratoire St Martin – Cairanne
• Domaine les Hautes Cances – Cairanne
• Domaine Alary – Cairanne
• Domaine Richaud – Cairanne
• Domaine des Escaravailles – Rasteau
• Famille Perrin – Vinsobres

Best-value Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres wines in 2024

• Domaine des Escaravailles, Classique, Rasteau 2024
• Brotte, Création Grosset, Cairanne 2024
• Famille Perrin, Les Cornuds, Vinsobres 2024

Compare vintages: See coverage from previous years

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2023: Report and top-scoring wines

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2022: Report and top-scoring wines

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2021: Report and top-scoring wines

Beyond the crus

From the Named Villages of the Côtes du Rhône, there are several impressively fresh and concentrated reds from both Sablet and Valréas.

There are also thrilling individual wines from overperforming estates in Roaix, Massif d’Uchaux and Suze-la-Rousse. These under-the-radar gems represent some of the best value wines in the Rhône.

It’s clearly a very good vintage for Rolle (Vermentino), making for an exceptional year for Luberon whites.

With so many examples enjoying great balance and intensity – and no excess fat or alcohol – it’s the perfect vintage to explore this lesser-known style.

The whites of neighbouring Ventoux are also excellent, not to mention many of its reds, especially those from more elevated vineyards.

The best Côtes du Rhônes will be covered in a separate column on Decanter Premium in January.

See the full Rhône 2024 vintage report

Top-scoring Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres wines in 2024

Wines rated 97+ are featured in the main report

Related articles

• Walls: Rasteau 2020 in bottle
• Behind Rasteau’s renaissance plus 10 ‘new look’ bottles to seek out
• Rhône producer to know: Domaine Gramenon, Vinsobres

In a year such as 2024, it’s best to start with the positives.

The better red Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines this year are fresh and vibrant, with good acidity and relatively low alcohol. They are defined and transparent, and speak clearly of their terroir.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines in 2024

They aren’t as exaggerated as some recent hotter vintages, and have a more natural sense of balance. If you’re looking for powerful Châteauneuf-du-Pape, you might prefer 2022 or 2023; the 2024s are more about elegance.

But not all are so successful. A good proportion of them lack concentration or have green tannins.

In some quarters, high crop loads were the problem. September wasn’t warm enough to ripen all the grapes. Elsewhere, mildew damaged leaves, impeding photosynthesis.

It was a complicated season, where growers had to be reactive to succeed.

The whites are exceptionally good, however. They have it all: freshness, intensity, moderate alcohol, minerality, drinkability and ageing potential.

You can almost buy the whites blind in 2024. But not the reds.

See all Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines tasted

Key Châteauneuf-du-Pape producers in 2024

• Château de Beaucastel
• Clos des Papes
• Domaine de Beaurenard
• Domaine de la Janasse
• Domaine de la Vieille Julienne

Best-value Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines in 2024

• Château de la Font du Loup, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2024
• Domaine de Beaurenard, Tradition, Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2024
• Domaine Raymond Usseglio, Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2024

Compare vintages: See coverage from previous years

Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2023: Report and top-scoring wines

Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2022: Report and top-scoring wines

Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2021: Report and top-scoring wines

See the full Rhône 2024 vintage report

Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines in 2024

Wines rated 97+ are featured in the main report

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• White Châteauneuf-du-Pape: 20 of the best
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If you ask people to name a powerful, potent and concentrated wine, you can bet that Châteauneuf-du-Pape would be a common call. There’s no doubt that it can be an extreme style, and that’s one reason it has so many admirers.

But playing at the outer reaches of style can be treacherous. Balance and drinkability can be easily lost.

Scroll down for notes and scores for eight vintages of Vieille Julienne’s Réservé

My personal taste has always veered towards more elegant interpretations of Châteauneuf. I was never a fan of the pumped-up, overripe examples from the 1990s.

But there is one bottling that strides beyond the limits of most Grenache-based wines, and does so magnificently: Domaine de la Vieille Julienne’s cuvée Réservé.

Early attempts

I visit the domaine’s owner and winemaker Jean-Paul Daumen in October every year to get his take on the new vintage. I can always rely on him for an intelligent and eloquent read of the season in question.

This year we also tasted through eight vintages of Réservé made between 2012 and 2024.

Daumen joined his father at the family estate in 1992. He soon noticed that some of their oldest Grenache vines within a parcel of their Trois Sources vineyard appeared different – very small, loose bunches and fewer leaves. In 1994, he decided to vinify them separately. Encouraged by the results, he did so again in 1995.

He waited until the renowned 1998 vintage to repeat the experiment a third time. Despite a glorious growing season, it was less successful.

‘In the 1990s, for many producers the goal was to get very overripe grapes,’ he says. By following the same trend, he ended up with a wine that fell out of balance and into excess.

‘The ‘90s was a time for me to learn,’ he says. ‘Sometimes to find the limit, you have to go past it.’

His 1999, picked earlier, was much better. By 2001, he finally felt satisfied with his creation.

Vintages of Réservé produced:

1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, and every vintage between 2015-2025.

Coloured ribbon

To begin with, Daumen only made this cuvée in the best vintages, but due to global warming he has been able to produce it every year since 2015.

Before, it was a case of not wanting to ‘amputate’ anything from his other Châteauneuf cuvées by making Réservé.

Today, the fruit ‘must be removed from Trois Sources,’ he says, ‘as it wouldn’t be right for it.’

The selection is made at harvest by tasting the berries, and a ribbon is attached to the vines so the picking team knows which ones to select.

The blend is typically 90%-95% Grenache, the rest mostly Syrah, with a little Cinsault and Counoise.

The Grenache has historically all been destemmed, but this is beginning to change, as Daumen likes the complexity that a little whole bunch can bring. He matures it in old foudres, as he’s never liked new oak.

The style

Some Châteauneufs, such as Clos des Papes, focus on finesse. Others, like Château de Beaucastel, are more about structure and balance. Vieille Julienne Réservé is Grenache in excelsis.

It’s a wine of phenomenal concentration, intensity and thrust – it’s so loud and so immense that it dominates your attention. Yet in good vintages it retains enough acidity, freshness and salinity for a sense of elegance and drinkability. It’s a wine of such staggering proportions, such depth and length, that it leaves you awestruck.

That said, I don’t expect everyone to enjoy it. Some will find it too powerful, too intense, simply too much.

Since converting to biodynamic viticulture in 2001, Daumen has seen alcohol levels rise slightly in his wines; but conversely ‘you don’t feel it as much’. He admits it’s hard to explain, but he believes it’s to do with the quality of the alcohol, rather than the quantity.

There’s no escaping that this is a potent wine; it typically reaches 15.5%-16% alcohol. Would it be better with less alcohol? No; as it is a cornerstone of the wine. ‘Alcohol brings this round side, this sucrosité,’ he says.

50 years and counting

Because of its outsize proportions, when tasting from barrel I’ve had niggling doubts in the past about how this cuvée will perform over time. After all, some of those exaggerated wines from the ‘90s fell apart all too quickly. But this tasting extinguished that uncertainty.

Despite its size, it doesn’t need to be aged for a long time before drinking – you can approach it like a normal Châteauneuf in that respect. In fact it drinks better young than most. It also matures largely at the same pace, so the 2012 for example is beginning to drink very well now.

Daumen says there is a degree of unpredictability with this cuvée, but it’s clear that good vintages age very well. Some, like the 2016, should last for 50 years or more. Such is its life force, you can almost imagine it lasting twice that long.

When it comes to food, a côte de boeuf is the obvious choice. It’s a wine that demands protein, fat and smoky char.

Like the more extreme styles of music, fashion or art, it won’t be for everyone. To be certain, you’ll have to try it.

Ensure you’re in the right mood, in the right company, it’s at the right temperature and you have complementary food. But even if it’s not to your personal taste, it’s hard to argue that this isn’t one of the greatest global expressions of Grenache.

Either way, you won’t forget it in a hurry.

Vieille Julienne Réservé through time:

Wines are listed by vintage from youngest to oldest

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• How Tablas Creek went on a quest to bottle Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s hidden grapes
• Château de Beaucastel completes radical €12m cellar project

Some vintages have clear identities. In Gigondas, the 2019s for example are wilful, energetic wines, while the 2018s are softer and juicier.

The 2022 vintage is harder to pin down. The best way of describing it, both in climate and style, is a vintage of extremes.

The wines occupy a broader stylistic spectrum than a typical year, even within the range of a single producer.

But if you sidestep the unbalanced wines – there are many with tough tannins and high alcohols – the best wines will age for decades.

Scroll down for Matt Walls’ best 2022 Gigondas wines in bottle

A harsh season

The extreme nature of the wines comes as no surprise: 2022 was the hottest and driest year on record in the southern Rhône.

‘The summer was very hot, scorching even,’ says Julien Brechet of Domaine des Bosquets, ‘and very dry. Temperatures sometimes reached 42°C.

‘Fortunately the cool Dentelles massif and the morning shade cast over the vineyard helped us hold our ground,’ he continues. ‘The sunshine is strong but less scorching than on the plains.’

Romain Saurel of Domaine Saint-Damien says that spring was extremely dry, with less than 200mm of rainfall between December and July.

Thankfully there was a storm on 14 August, which ‘really saved the quality of the vintage,’ he says.

Further small rains later in August and September also helped the vines stay on track, but young vines suffered.

Brechet had to manually water his young vines 11 times between June and August to keep them alive. Old vines coped much better.

This is a vintage where Grenache really shows its worth. The Syrah-heavy blends were often impenetrably tough and tannic, whereas the Grenache-based wines were more juicy, vibrant and balanced.

See Matt Walls full report on the 2022 vintage in the Rhône here

Tannin and texture

Very hot, dry vintages can sometimes lead to jammy or raisined fruit flavours but that’s not the case in 2022.

Despite the conditions – and the fairly low acidities – the wines do have a good sense of freshness.

Nonetheless, the hot, dry conditions left a strong imprint on the wines.

For Jérôme Rathle, 2022 marked his second vintage. His new estate, Domaine des Florets, is one to watch.

‘The lack of rain limited fungal diseases, but the high temperatures led to small berries and ultimately low yields,’ he says, ‘the Syrah berries looked like blueberries.’

This meant a high skin-to-juice ratio in the grapes, which made for some very tannic wines.

Another effect of the hot weather was that some vines shut down and stopped ripening, which can lead to green tannins – further impacting some wines’ textures.

So the main question surrounding the tasting was this: will the tannins ever soften and come round?

For a good number of the 76 wines I tasted, I suspect the answer is no, they won’t. Those wines aren’t included in my selection.

But winemakers that achieved balanced grapes and mastered their tannin management produced some thrilling, chiselled and assertive wines.

Key takeaways: Wines for the cellar

Those drinking well already are in the minority; even for the wines you could broach today, most will improve with a few more years in bottle.

This is a vintage that will reward the patient.

Brechet agrees: ‘The 2022 vintage will likely be a great ageing vintage in Gigondas, thanks to the balance of the great high-altitude terroirs.’

He believes his Regard Loin could age for over 30 years, and I wouldn’t bet against him.

It’s worth adding that it’s not just the higher elevation terroirs that turned out great wines in 2022; some of the lower altitude plots on the Cône also performed well, such as those from Saint-Damien and Montirius.

Most of all, 2022 is a vintage where the best winemakers really rose to the top.

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Best 2022 Gigondas in bottle:

30 wines are listed below, see all 37 of Matt Walls’ recommedations here

Related articles

• Walls: Rhône reds lighten up
• Walls: Gigondas 2013 and 2014 – time to drink up?
• Gigondas to produce white wines

To paraphrase Shakespeare: some are born into vineyards, some buy vineyards, and some have vineyards thrust upon them.

It was the last of these three that destiny chose for Saskia Goetschy.

But arriving in the Rhône with fresh eyes has granted her and her husband Maurice Goetschy an original interpretation of Lirac and Tavel.

Scroll down for notes and scores for Château Boucarut wines

New beginnings

Saskia spent her childhood in Malaga, southern Spain, where her father was a workaholic lawyer. Her mother wanted the family to spend more time together, so they looked at some properties in rural France.

‘One day, my father came back from the office,’ says Saskia, ‘and he said “remember that house with the vineyards? Well I bought it.”’

And just like that, she had to pack her things and move to France.

This was in 1993 when she was still a kid. Was it as magical as it sounds? ‘No, it was really stressful!’ she says, ‘Changing life, changing country, not knowing the language… but I had no choice!’

The property, deep in the vineyards of Lirac, was a large mas called Château Boucarut that dates back to 1758.

To begin with they needed somewhere else to stay as the buildings required significant renovation. Saskia’s mother got talking to a local man one day who happened to be launching his own winemaking career, and he had enough space to put them up.

As luck would have it, this man turned out to be star winemaker Rodolphe de Pins of Château de Montfaucon. Saskia’s family lodged in his château for two years.

To Luxembourg and back

After school, Saskia studied law, then moved to Luxembourg where she worked at a legal firm for 12 years.

It was there she met Maurice, and they spent holidays together at Château Boucarut. They dreamt about spending their distant retirement on the property making wine.

When a block of vines that bordered the property came on the market, Saskia realised they simply had to buy it – or forever be blamed by future generations for missing the opportunity.

For two years they tried to manage the vineyards from Luxembourg but it proved impossible.

In 2019, they decided to give up their careers in law and return permanently to Boucarut.

Back to the vines

By the time they returned, they had already started converting the vineyards to organic.

‘There was no option,’ says Maurice, ‘by that time, everybody knew it worked.’

He believed it was crucial to maintain local biodiversity. ‘But you have to go further,’ he says.

A common way to control weeds and unwanted grass without herbicides is to plough the soils mechanically, but he’s not satisfied with this option either.

He believes that ripping up the earth disrupts the life within the soils, including elements you can’t see, like networks of mycelia.

‘If you put a cat in a blender, it’s not a cat anymore,’ he says.

They’re working towards no-till farming, where the soils are not ploughed and or worked, and their eventual intention is regenerative viticulture – an approach that prioritises improvement of soil health.

In the winery, they work with as little manipulation as possible – no commercial yeasts or added enzymes, no sulphites before bottling and no fining or filtration.

They cite the great Eric Pfifferling of Domaine l’Anglore as an inspiration.

Outsider’s vision

The result is a range of wines with vibrancy, immediacy and drinkability.

In natural wine circles, you sometimes hear people talking about ‘living wines’.

Wines aren’t literally alive, of course; but when you taste these wines, the expression makes sense.

I’m sure many newcomers envy those who are born into winemaking families, inheriting vines, wineries and full cellars.

But not all legacies are desirable. Sometimes complacency and blinkered sight comes with the territory.

‘We didn’t have the heritage of parents, grandparents… we could begin more or less from zero,’ says Maurice.

It allows them to make a fresh read of this old terroir – and come up with something deliciously original.

Discover the wines from Château Boucarut:

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Château des Tours Côtes du Rhône Grande Réserve 2015 is one of the most memorable bottles I’ve drunk in the last 12 months.

It would have been bottled as a Vacqueyras where it was grown, but it had to be declassified to a lowly Côtes du Rhône.

Why? For one reason: the wine was deemed too pale.

Notes for lighter Rhône reds below

Is the colour of a wine important to you? I care more about how it smells, how it tastes and how it makes me feel.

And this wine made me feel elated. It would have been a credit to its appellation.

But all Southern Rhône AOCs state that their red wines must have a certain depth of colour.

If a producer’s wine isn’t dark enough, it won’t be granted the appellation – and declassifying their wines usually means having to drop their prices too.

Many winemakers are frustrated with this increasingly outdated regulation.

Fortunately, a change in the rules might be on the horizon – bringing with it an entirely new category of wine.

Dark arts

Each appellation has its own rules regarding depth of colour and wines are analysed using a spectrophotometer.

The cahier des charges (official production rules) for AOC Côtes du Rhône wines, for example, stipulates an optical density of 3.5; AOC Châteauneuf-du-Pape reds must be slightly darker, at least 4; for AOC Vacqueyras it’s 5; Lirac is 6.

Initially, this regulation was useful.

‘Originally, this colour intensity threshold was intended to prevent overly diluted wines from being released onto the market,’ says Damien Gilles, president of the Syndicat des Vignerons des Côtes du Rhône.

‘Given the climatic conditions of the time, it was a form of guarantee.’

Today, diluted or unripe reds are rare in the Southern Rhône – thanks in part to the heating climate – which is rendering these rules obsolete.

‘In the past, the darker it was, the more alcoholic it was, the better it was,’ says Jean-Etienne Alary of Domaine Alary in Cairanne.

Today’s tastes are more refined.

Turning to the light

A red wine that’s pale is not necessarily dilute.

There are certain practices in the vineyard and cellar that have strongly advantageous effects on the finished wine but also happen to reduce colour density.

Whole bunch vinification, for example, can add freshness and structure – but often results in a lighter colour.

Wines grown on sand can be beautifully elegant, but are rarely dark. In the right hands, carbonic maceration of Grenache can make lovely pale-coloured wines.

Amélie Barrot, president of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation regulation committee (ODG), lists three more factors that are resulting in ‘a natural decline in colour density in our red wines’.

Firstly, the increasing interest in lesser-known grape varieties with lighter pigmentation such as Cinsault, Vaccarèse and Terret Noir.

Secondly, a growing interest in blending white grapes into red wines, which can bring freshness and acidity.

And thirdly, ‘the narrowing gap between day and night temperatures in summer, which negatively affects anthocyanin concentration in grapes, and thus colour intensity in wines,’ she says.

Stuck with Syrah

One, perhaps unintended, effect of the rules around colour density in the Southern Rhône has been the proliferation of Syrah, which is now the second most planted variety after Grenache.

Originally from the Northern Rhône, Syrah arrived relatively recently in the south.

Domaine Condorcet claims it was first to plant Syrah in Châteauneuf-du-Pape in 1830, and it spread to the rest of the Southern Rhône much later.

It can be highly beneficial in a blend, bringing structure and spice, but primarily, according to Maxime-François Laurent of Domaine Gramenon, ‘Syrah was brought here to add a bit of colour’.

Syrah is naturally much darker than Grenache, so it can be a useful grape for reaching the required colour levels.

But its flavours can easily dominate a blend. And more and more winemakers believe it’s now ill-adapted to the hot Southern Rhône.

‘It’s not a typical variety here,’ says Maurice Goetschy of Château Boucarut in Lirac, ‘and sometimes it suffers in the heat.’

But winemakers are stuck with Syrah for the colour it provides – whether they like it or not.

A new category is born

Fortunately, change is afoot. Gilles says the Syndicat des Vignerons des Côtes du Rhône has initiated a revision of the rules, and a request has already been submitted to the French appellation authorities, the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO).

Barrot confirms that AOC Châteauneuf-du-Pape is considering a similar revision, ‘with a decision expected in the coming months’.

Gilles says that the changes have been requested for several reasons: to simplify the cahier des charges, to adapt to climate change and to be able to bring new products to a changing market.

Gilles says: ‘Among the areas of market adaptation, we have submitted to the INAO the creation of a new Côtes du Rhône segment reserved for fresh, fruity and light wines where colour would no longer be a limiting factor.’

This could bring about a new category of pale red, clairet-style Côtes du Rhône wines.

Chapoutier’s Vin de France ‘Rouge Clair’ might give us an idea of what to expect: a pale-coloured, commercial, chillable red that’s all about juicy red fruit flavour.

‘We were surprised by how well it sold,’ says Maxime Chapoutier, proving there’s a market for this kind of product.

I’m not sure how exciting this new category will be, but I’m keeping an open mind.

If other appellations follow suit and relax their regulations around colour, this will be a welcome development, giving producers more freedom to create brilliant, characterful wines without being penalised for it.

The future’s bright.

Lighter Rhône reds:

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Rounded galets roulés, or pudding stones as they’re sometimes called, are the most emblematic soil of the Southern Rhône.

They’re the same size, shape – and sometimes colour – of bodybuilders’ biceps, which gives you a hint of what to expect from this powerful terroir.

There’s another type of soil however, little discussed and undervalued, that instead makes wines that emphasise finesse.

As tastes change – and the climate gets hotter – it’s time to seek out wines born of sand.

Scroll down for Matt’s choice of 11 Rhône wines from sandy soils

Rhône on Sea

Northern Rhône vineyards are largely built on an igneous rock – granite. In the Southern Rhône, various types of sedimentary bedrock are more common.

There are several types of sand here, some brought by rivers, others by wind – but the most interesting sand for viticultural purposes is that brought by the sea.

It’s incredible to imagine today, but the Mediterranean Sea marauded up the Rhône Valley not once but twice – during the Miocene era (23 to 5 million years ago) and the Pliocene (5 to 2 million years ago) – and while there, it deposited layer upon layer of sand that was gradually compressed into sandstone.

This rock is known in the local Provençal dialect as safre.

It’s a particularly compact type of sandstone. Philippe Lambert of Domaine des Pasquiers in Sablet says, ‘it’s almost harder than rock’.

Some vineyards here have slabs of it discarded around the edges, dredged out of the soil to allow the roots downward passage.

It weathers down naturally to produce a fine sandy topsoil. When the sun’s out, you could be sitting on the beach.

Where it’s found

Inconveniently for us, the sandy soils of the Southern Rhône don’t follow appellation boundaries.

Deposits can be found in varying amounts all over the region, including:

• The northeastern quarter of Châteauneuf-du-Pape around Courthézon.
• A band that skirts the western edge of the Dentelles de Montmirail passing through Séguret, Sablet and Gigondas.
• Huge deposits at the south of the Dentelles in Beaumes de Venise (Muscat loves sand) and smaller ones around Vacqueyras.
• To the north of the Dentelles, in the flatter parts of Roaix, Vaison la Romaine and Puyméras.
• At the base of the Lance massif in the far north east, around Rousset-les-Vignes, Saint-Pantaléon-les-Vignes and Valréas.
• A band that runs through the Massif d’Uchaux, Rochegude and Suze-la-Rousse.
• Important deposits are on the west bank too, in Laudun, Chusclan, Lirac and Tavel.

As such, when looking for wines grown on sand, you’ll have to search by producer rather than appellation; sometimes by individual cuvée.

Growing on sand

Sand is a poorer soil compared to, say, clay; it offers less in the way of nutrients to vines.

But one benefit – when not blocked by plates of hard safre – is that roots are free to delve down deeply.

Though water readily drains through sand, it’s not necessarily an arid terroir in dry climates.

Georges Truc, the renowned ‘oeno-geologist’, explains that water can percolate upwards by capillarity as long as there’s proximity to a water source.

‘Sand is very favourable to all varieties,’ he says, but it gives particularly interesting results with Grenache and Cinsault in red, and Grenache Blanc and Clairette in white.

Maurice Goetschy of Château Boucarut in Lirac says cultivars that prefer a more moderate heat, such as Roussanne and Viognier, can ripen very quickly on these terroirs.

Fine sand, fine wines

‘There’s a finesse you find from the sands of Lirac,’ says Edouard Guérin of Ogier.

By comparison, his says wines on nearby clay soils have sweeter, jammier fruit flavours. Truc agrees that ‘sand gives very fine tannins’.

Reds from vineyards composed of galets roulés tend to have muscular, rounded profiles.

Those from sand have lighter tannic textures reminiscent of fine, cooling sand flowing through your fingers.

Sand typically produces wines with a slightly paler colour, that are approachable young but can age well too.

They are usually less powerful and concentrated than wines from galets roulés – which can be a good or bad thing, depending on what you’re looking for.

Historically, sand has been less lauded than galets roulés, particularly in Châteauneuf.

But as more winemakers, and wine drinkers, seek elegance over strength, this is beginning to change.

That Château Rayas comes from sand is evidence enough that these soils can make the very finest wines.

Rhône wines made from sandy soils

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US winery Tablas Creek said it has achieved a decades-long mission to make single-varietal wines from all 14 traditional Châteauneuf-du-Pape grape varieties that feature at Château de Beaucastel, one of the French appellation’s best-known producers.

Muscardin, rarely seen beyond the Rhône and planted in California by Tablas Creek in 2019, is the newest arrival after a 25-case production run in the 2023 vintage.

Tablas Creek, founded in 1989 by Beaucastel’s Perrin family and Robert Haas, of Vineyard Brands, said that makes its new 14-wine collection a first for a US winery.

Located in Paso Robles, the producer has long been a pioneer of Rhône varieties in the US, and regenerative farming.

‘I can feel my dad smiling down at this landmark,’ said Tablas Creek’s second-generation proprietor, Jason Haas. ‘People so often think of the Rhone grape varieties as “just blending grapes”. But tasting them on their own…each one has its own distinctive personality.

‘We are proud to have introduced so many of them to California viticulture, and to see millions of cuttings from those original mother vines in hundreds of vineyards up and down the West Coast.’

A long road

From the start, Tablas Creek has imported and propagated grape varieties grown at Beaucastel. Its first plantings, in 1994, included Mourvèdre, Grenache and Grenache Blanc, Syrah, Counoise and Roussanne.

Next came Picpoul Blanc in 2000, followed by Terret Noir and Clairette Blanche (2010), Picardan (2013), Vaccarèse, Cinsault and Bourboulenc (2016), and, finally, Muscardin in 2019.

Its 14-strong, single-varietal range covers each of these. Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s appellation body cites 13 allowable grape varieties, but it only counts Grenache once.

A debut for Muscardin

Tablas Creek brought over a fresh wave of Beaucastel plant material in 2003, but US officials quarantined varieties for varying lengths of time.

‘Poor Muscardin stayed in quarantine until 2018,’ said Haas, in a winery blog post.

Now in the bottle, he said the variety ‘has lovely floral character, pretty pomegranate fruit, bright acids, an herby complexity like walking on a Provencal hillside, and a little sneaky grip of tannins on the finish.’ 

There will be a small amount of Muscardin 2024, he said, following up on the small-scale 2023-vintage debut.

‘We’re also looking for the opportunity to get a little more Muscardin in the ground, so we’re looking at potential quantities more like 50-100 cases instead of 25.’

Tablas Creek said it would introduce its Muscardin at an industry event, but will also hold some back to see how it evolves.

Look out for an upcoming in depth analysis, alongside reviews of the wines, by our Rhône correspondent Matt Walls.

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Let me begin with a quick story about a different winery – the anti-Beaurenard, if you like. I won’t mention its name, but it’s Italian.

I drank one of its wines that was so delicious I shared a photo of the bottle with friends in a WhatsApp group. Fresh, structured, with an array of herbs and dried flowers – they should look out for it, I said.

‘Oh THAT guy,’ came the replies. It turned out the winemaker had made some vile comments on Facebook. I searched them up and read them for myself. Then I put the cork back in the bottle.

The next day, I poured myself another glass but I couldn’t enjoy it. It’s hard to separate the art from the artist when you have to swallow their work.

Winemakers tend to be a friendly and collegiate bunch, so this kind of experience is rare. It’s more common that a drinking experience is elevated by knowing the people behind the label – as it is with Domaine de Beaurenard.

Scroll down for notes and scores of Domaine de Beaurenard’s Cuvée Spéciale Boisrenard

Family values

When you’ve been visiting wine regions for a number of years, sometimes you get to witness the changing of the guard, as one generation gradually hands over the reins to the next.

When I started writing about the Rhône, Beaurenard owners Daniel and Frédéric Coulon were always helpful in my research and tactful in answering my occasionally stupid questions.

Today I’m more likely to meet with Daniel’s sons Victor and Antonin, the 8th generation of Coulons, who joined the estate in 2016 and 2017.

Thankfully, they also put up with my occasionally stupid questions just as graciously.

This is a family of genuine wine lovers – they share and talk about wine of all kinds with unfailing enthusiasm, and they often make a few clandestine cuvées just for fun.

Last time I visited, they opened a new Châteauneuf for me to try called Beaurenard Le Lieu Dit, a blend of 75% Cinsault, the rest Grenache and white varieties, all co-planted – catnip for Cinsault-lovers like me.

They do great work to support the appellation more broadly. They have 70ha spread over Châteauneuf, Rasteau and Côtes-du-Rhône, all of which is farmed biodynamically.

This approach tends to make for better wines, but it’s good for local biodiversity too, from which everyone benefits.

Being staunch believers in Châteauneuf’s heritage grapes, the family have also established a conservatory for all 18 varieties.

Some, such as Piquepoul Gris and Clairette Rose, are hard to find at local vine nurseries, so the Coulon family help neighbouring estates by providing cuttings.

They are deeply invested in their village and its future.

Boisrenard

Despite the occasional one-off cuvée, the heart of Beaurenard’s Châteauneuf range consists of four wines: their red and white tradition bottling, and their red and white cuvée spéciale, called Boisrenard.

I recently paid Antonin a visit to taste eight vintages of their red Boisrenard, from 2023 back to 1995.

Today, most Châteauneuf cuvées spéciales are parcel selections, but Boisrenard is different. It’s an old vine cuvée, but the vineyards change from year to year. Some are always included, such as a plot of 102-year-old vines in lieu-dit Cabrières.

But other sites are selected when they’ve performed particularly well in any given vintage.

As such, the grape blend differs from year to year – and given that many of their plots are co-planted, it’s hard to know the precise breakdown anyway.

That said, a typical vintage contains between 70-80% Grenache, and all the other permitted Châteauneuf grapes will find their way in to some extent.

‘The grapes are in service of something bigger,’ says Antonin, ‘the plot and what it brings is more important.’

Until 2022 it was all destemmed, and even now their use of whole bunches is restricted to around 10%. ‘I want people to drink a place, not a technique,’ says Antonin.

In the same spirit, the wine is matured in large neutral barrels of different sizes, with no (or very little) new wood.

As such, it’s impossible to define Boisrenard – ‘we’ve changed many things over time and we’ll keep on changing it,’ says Antonin, varying fermentation and maturation vessels, sulphite additions, and other elements over the years.

‘Essentially it’s just a concept of old vines from our estate,’ he says.

A characterful style

So how does Boisrenard differ from their red tradition? ‘My brother Victor says it’s the same wine, just with much more intensity,’ says Antonin. F

rom an outsider’s perspective, I would add that it always has impressive depth, it often has a saline edge to the fruit, and it usually displays tensile tannins which help the wine to age.

In fact, some vintages require long ageing to soften. Boisrenard often takes on umami notes as it evolves, making for a savoury, food-friendly style of Châteauneuf.

That this cuvée doesn’t come from a single plot means that each vintage has a character all of its own. But when put together there is a marked family resemblance – athletic and chiselled.

Rather like the Coulons themselves.

Knowing that the wine is made by such great people doesn’t change its intrinsic quality of course. But when you open a bottle, it’s an added bonus to know you’re supporting the good guys.

Domaine de Beaurenard’s Cuvée Spéciale Boisrenard

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The cost of the ambitious Château de Beaucastel cellar project was €12m (£10m), and an inauguration date of 21 May 2025 has been set.

The intention was to extend the winery in readiness for greater capacity in the coming years, but they have used the opportunity to harness the elements – earth, air, sun and water – to greatly reduce their water and energy needs.

To achieve this, they employed a range of ancient and modern methods.

Indian architect

The project began in September 2018, when they commissioned the architectural consultancy Because Architecture Matters (BAM) to organise a competition to appoint an architect.

A total of 300 firms, representing 32 nationalities, submitted an entry.

‘We knew that the competition would interest a number of architects, but we never thought it would spark the world-wide enthusiasm that we have experienced,’ said Mathias Boutier, founder of BAM.

From a shortlist of 10, the appointed winner was Studio Mumbai, an internationally renowned Indian architect, who worked on the project in association with Studio Méditerranée, an agency from the south of France specialising in renovation and eco-responsible construction.

Sustainability first

Some of the original winery buildings have been preserved, and to these have been added a large new wing, much of which is underground. It benefits from the naturally cool and regular temperatures below ground.

To help cool the new winery, and to increase humidity, four large reservoirs have been dug out that are filled with filtered rainwater harvested from the roof.

The powerful north wind known as the Mistral is directed through a series of openings and channels, passing over the surface of the water, then flowing through the winery, bringing the air temperature down further to 12°C, requiring neither energy nor expenditure.

Collected rainwater – which should eventually deliver 95% of the estate’s water needs – can also be used for cleaning, cooling and watering the gardens.

Electricity is generated by roof-mounted solar panels, and will generate almost all of their annual needs.

Sections of the new winery have been constructed partly from aggregates from the demolished buildings, reducing the need for new materials by reusing old ones.

Outside walls are made in the pisé (rammed earth) construction technique, using clay excavated from the site to build large raw-earth blocks.

This ancient technique has seen a resurgence in interest recently, as using local materials reduces the environmental impact of construction. An additional benefit is that rammed earth walls also help to regulate the inside temperatures of the building.

In addition to the winery, other external buildings, courtyards and gardens have been created for the wellbeing and comfort of staff and guests.

‘Everything works well today,’ said César Perrin, who plans to receive the 2025 harvest at the winery later this year. ‘Nothing will change with the wine. The project is just to be more eco-responsible and to use less energy,’ he said.

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As you drive south from the northern Rhône, you won’t see a sign saying ‘Welcome to the southern Rhône’. There’s no need – you know when you’ve arrived thanks to the sudden prevalence of olive trees.

Olives and olive oil are a cornerstone of Provençal cuisine, particularly in the village of Nyons.

Scroll down for notes and scores for 10 wines from Côtes du Rhône Villages Nyons

Here, the history of the olive tree and the grape vine are intertwined – sometimes almost literally. In places they’re even grown haphazardly in the same field.

In 2020, Nyons was promoted to a Named Village, allowed to append its name to Côtes du Rhône Villages on the label.

I paid a visit to this appellation to see if its wines are distinctive as its olives.

Olives and vines

Nyons is both the newest and most remote of the 21 Named Villages of the Côtes du Rhône Villages designation.

The village is an hour and a half drive northeast of Avignon.

If you’re headed to Italy from this part of France, you might go via Nyons, as it’s located at a gap in the mountains from which the river Aygues flows, marking the gateway into the French Prealps, the mountain range which borders the Alps to the west.

I arrived on a sunny winter morning, the sky a luminous blue. Copper-coloured leaves still clung to the branches of dormant oaks.

They produce plentiful truffles here, but olives are what Nyons is famous for. In fact, it was granted the first AP for black olives and olive oil in France, back in 1994.

Like grapes, there are many varieties of olive. The only one grown in Nyons is the Tanche, which has a wrinkled, meaty flesh and an extraordinary depth of flavour.

The trees are planted on flat areas, and they climb the steep hillsides too. Historically they were even more numerous, but in February 1956, something happened that changed the course of agriculture in Provence forever.

It was the coldest month on record in France, dropping to -20°C further south in Aix-en-Provence. On top of this, the Rhône was hit by a fearsome Mistral wind of up to 180 kilometres per hour.

Local people reported hearing the trunks of olive trees split as the sap within them froze; 90% of olive trees in Nyons were wiped out.

As it takes so long for the trees to produce fruit, the government of the time offered assistance for local farmers to plant vines instead.

Mountain breezes

The locals chose Grenache, which today makes up 66% of plantings, while 30% is Syrah. There’s a splash of Carignan and Mourvèdre too, but it’s too cool here to confidently ripen these two.

The appellation covers four communes, encompassing a curve of hillside land that abuts the mountains, from Venterol just north of Nyons, down to Mirabel-aux-Baronnies and Piégon to its south.

The cooler microclimate is partly thanks to elevation – vineyards are between 200m and 500m – and partly thanks to a cold alpine wind that whistles through the mountains called the Pontias.

Pierre-Michel More, president of the appellation, says, ‘it has the same influence as the Mistral without the strength of the Mistral,’ both cooling and drying.

These factors contribute to a significant difference between day and night temperatures, which makes for a fresh and aromatic style of wine.

The Nyons style

There aren’t many producers bottling wine under this new appellation, just three co-operatives and three private estates.

I managed to taste examples from all but one. All 10 cuvées were from 2023, and seven were certified organic or biodynamic.

Much of the terroir of the southern Rhône is too hot to create fresh and balanced wines when using a large proportion of Syrah, so I was apprehensive about what I might find.

I was relieved to discover that this variety does indeed suit the fresher terroir here.

There is an identifiable family style among the wines – brightness and definition of flavour, good acidity and ripeness without excess alcohol.

I enjoyed the chalky tannins and the sense of tension in the wines – the combination of limestone soils, altitude and cold winds makes for an attractive, aerial expression.

They reminded me of a slightly slimmer version of Vinsobres.

The downside? None of them are yet available in the UK or US market.

It’s early days in the story of this appellation, so it will take time for the message to spread to importers. But if you’re travelling to the southern Rhône, mark it on the map.

You can satisfy both your olive and your wine craving at the same time – two birds with one olive stone.

Côte du Rhône Villages Nyons: An appellation on the up

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Glossaries are normally published at the backs of books. This makes sense: it would be a tedious way to begin any story.

But when talking about the 2024 vintage in the Rhône, it might be useful to start with a list of viticultural diseases and their effects. Because in 2024 the Rhône faced a barrage of problems.

When I met with Maxime Chapoutier to taste his 2024 Sélections Parcellaires on 19 March in London, he told me that it was the toughest growing season he’s ever witnessed.

But his perseverance has been repaid many times over – it’s shaping up to be a fascinating vintage.

Scroll down for tasting nows and scores for the 2024 Sélections Parcellaires wines

Silver linings

The key element that the season revolves around is water; both its benefits, and the problems it can cause.

The last wet year in the Rhône was 2021 and it produced a lot of thin and reedy wines. The style of wine in 2024 is thankfully much riper. That’s because it’s not just the amount of rain that matters, but when it falls.

While 2021 saw rain during the summer months and harvest, it came earlier in 2024 – mostly in winter and spring. It replenished the water table, and primed the season for a strong start.

‘From autumn to spring, you build the quantity,’ says Maxime Chapoutier, ‘from spring to autumn you build the quality.’

But wet weather in March led to problems with flowering in the northern Rhône, known as coulure. It’s rare for Syrah to suffer from this condition – it’s more commonly associated with Grenache in the south. This reduced potential yields by up to 40% in certain places, according to Chapoutier.

Low yields

Ongoing showers in April led to the early arrival of downy mildew. This is a fungus-like organism that attacks both leaves and bunches, causing them to blacken, desiccate and drop off.

Thankfully Chapoutier didn’t see any of the other sort – powdery mildew. This can lead to off flavours, whereas downy mildew principally affects yields, which were further reduced as a result.

By August the rains had stopped, and temperatures hit 35°C – hot, but not as scorching as the heatwave during the previous August, which saw the mercury rise to over 40°C.

By contrast, September was unseasonably chilly in 2024, with some afternoons not even reaching 20°C.

‘The consequence is that the tannins built up slowly and are much finer than in 2022,’ says Chapoutier, which was an exceptionally hot year.

In the north, the Chapoutier team began picking the whites on 19 August, with most being harvested in the first week in September.

Reds started on 12 September, and finished on 4 October – a return to more normal picking dates after 2022 and 2023. Alcohol levels are moderate here, and the wines have fresh acidity.

Maxime says conditions in the southern Rhône were ‘basically the same,’ but given that Grenache is even more sensitive to coulure and downy mildew, yields were even more limited – the domaine’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyards brought in as little as 8hl/ha, a long way off the permitted maximum of 35hl/ha.

Classic proportions

Juicy, fruity, sun-warmed wines are enjoyable to taste and flattering when young – vintages like 2018 and 2023 were delicious on release. But what they can lack is that steadying ‘Old World’ sobriety.

What I enjoyed about Chapoutier’s 2024s is that savoury, slightly austere edge that brings elegance, classicism and drinkability.

The reds were uniformly very good. Maxime is happier with Hermitage than Côte-Rôtie this year – he says Côte-Rôtie suffered a storm around the 19/20 September, so people harvested earlier than they otherwise might have.

All four of Chapoutier’s Hermitage are excellent, faithfully expressing their individual sites. Le Pavillon was particularly impressive – it’s a must-buy.

Vintage insights

Chapoutier has been increasing the proportion of whole bunches in the red Sélections Parcellaires wines to between 15% and 35%, depending on the vineyard.

In general it works well, accentuating freshness and contributing aromatic complexity, though some of the wines will take a little longer to soften as a result. The net effect is positive.

The whites have plenty of extract, giving them intensity and salinity, coupled with good acidity. They exhibit a little less of the struck-match reduction that has been more pronounced here in the past couple of vintages – which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your taste. They are equally as good as the reds this year.

I’ve heard very mixed reports about the 2024s over the past six months, but it was clearly a success at Chapoutier – in quality if not quantity.

But one swallow does not a summer make; perhaps other producers have been less fortunate.

I’ll be visiting the region to taste more widely in October, and will produce a full vintage report in November. But based on these wines, I can’t wait to taste more.

Chapoutier 2024 Sélections Parcellaires:

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As we walked through the winery at Château de Beaucastel, I asked César Perrin if he minded if I took some photos. ‘Sure,’ he said, ‘but we’re not allowed to take any of the actors.’

Between two sorting tables laden with purple grapes were lighting rigs and a camera crew all focusing on two glamorous individuals staring into each other’s eyes. They were filming the latest episode of the TV series Drops of God.

You never quite know what to expect at Beaucastel.

The Perrin family has always done things differently. Working organically as early as 1950 and farming biodynamically since 1974, the family was one of the first in the region to champion Mourvèdre; now, they’re backing Counoise.

But arguably their most radical move to date was to create their top white cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes in 1986, a wine that marries richness and vigour like few others.

Scroll down for notes and scores of 19 vintages of Beaucastel Roussanne Vieilles Vignes

A break from tradition

Today, most of the neighbouring estates bottle a range of different Châteauneufs. But in the mid-1980s that wasn’t the case; local estates produced just one red wine (and perhaps one white).

There were only a couple of estates making a Cuvée Spéciale at that time, and making a white one was unheard of.

Given this appellation’s longstanding dedication to blending, producing a white Cuvée Spéciale just from Roussanne – a single grape variety – was even more broad-minded.

I visited César and his father François Perrin a few weeks ago to taste 19 vintages of this pioneering white, from 2023 back to 1986 – one of the most comprehensive verticals they’ve ever done.

Four decades of winemaking

François was just 24 years old when he joined the family estate in 1978. ‘I didn’t understand anything to begin with,’ he says, but there was a particular plot of Roussanne that caught his eye that was planted in 1919 by his grandfather Pierre.

François first vinified this Roussanne separately in 1986, and, happy with the results, he continued to do so. ‘I had no idea they would live this long,’ he says.

Having both François and César present at the tasting was particularly instructive. François could tell me about the older vintages that he made, and César filled in the details on the more recent vintages; the 2012 vintage marks the transition from father to son.

From time to time, François teases César when we taste the older wines: ‘You see,’ he says to César, ‘we made good wines back then!’ But you can tell they get on well.

Picking by eye

The source of the fruit has always remained the same: a 4ha plot from the Beaucastel estate on the northeastern edge of the appellation. Yields are naturally low – around 15hl/ha – and around 6,000 bottles are released per year.

The key to the style is ripeness. ‘We don’t look to keep acidity,’ says François, ‘we pick it ripe, and when it turns roux,’ referring to the freckled, russet colour that Roussanne develops late in the season.

This always takes place between 15 September and 5 October, and they haven’t noticed much change with the picking dates.

‘The grapes almost start to deteriorate,’ adds César, ‘it can be a bit scary – but that’s the secret to Roussanne Vieilles Vignes.’

Stylistic evolution

In the 1980s, François says that the winemaking was ‘more empirical’. Today, they have more precision when it comes to temperature control and protecting the wine from oxygen.

They use more demi-muids than barriques now to age the wines, and they use either new or one-year-old oak.

With the help of a guide called a merrandier, someone specialised in splitting wood and making wooden staves, César buys entire oak trees from private forests, some aged up to 250 years old. These are then dried for three years before being fashioned into barrels.

The essence of Roussanne Vieilles Vignes

Roussanne is an unusually adaptable grape. It can make wines of lightness and purity in the cool, mountainous region of Savoie; it can make middle-weight St-Josephs in the northern Rhône.

And in Châteauneuf it makes wines of deep opulence – and none more so than Beaucastel’s Roussanne Vieilles Vignes.

When young, it typically has flavours of pear and apricot, leaning towards peach or even mango in warmer years. Notes of honey and spice build over time. The acidity is only ever mild, but saline touches on the palate and noble bitter notes help to bring structure.

Be aware that it usually goes through ‘a period of oxidation, a certain flatness around 10 years on average,’ according to François. ‘Then it becomes young again,’ he says, ‘but more angular and tense, less supple.’

This was borne out by the tasting; the 2016, though clearly an excellent wine, will disappoint if you open it now – it’s currently in this oxidative phase. The 2014 however is much more expressive and youthful.

What amazed me was how fresh and vibrant the oldest wines were – both the 1988 and the 1986 were still wonderful, with an extraordinary clarity and salinity.

It goes against the prevailing belief that full-bodied, low acid wines can’t age. Radical styles can behave unexpectedly.

What’s next for Beaucastel? Its most uncompromising project to date – a revolutionary new winery – has nearly come to fruition. More on that later.

But I can confirm it’s a fitting home to a wine such as this – one of France’s greatest Mediterranean whites.

19 vintages of a white masterpiece

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Like all insufferable dads, the other day I was lecturing my son about the music I grew up with, so I played him some early jungle over breakfast.

In retrospect, some of it sounds like a drum kit falling down the stairs, but a few tracks, despite their radical style, have stood the test of time.

It’s not just music that goes through different styles and fashions, wines do too. Take Châteauneuf for example. In the late 1990s and early 2000s it went through its ‘modern’ period, characterised by extreme ripeness and new oak.

Today, this style couldn’t be less fashionable, with winemakers instead seeking freshness and balance.

At the time, one of the wines associated with that extreme style was Domaine de la Mordorée’s La Plume du Peintre. I recently had the chance to revisit the 2003 and 2005, and compare with the 2019 and 2022. I was keen to see how they looked 20-plus years on.

Are we right to deride that style today, or were winemakers actually onto something?

Scroll down to see Matt Walls’ notes and scores for 10 Domaine de la Mordorée La Plume du Peintre wines

Queen of the woods

In French, a mordorée is another name for a bécasse, a small game bird known in English as a woodcock. It’s the emblem of Domaine de la Mordorée, which is now in the hands of Ambre Delorme. She uses the creature’s various nicknames for some of her other cuvées: La Reine des Bois (The Queen of the Woods), La Dame Rousse (The Redheaded Woman) and La Dame Voyageuse (The Travelling Lady).

It was her father Christophe Delorme, who died aged 52 in 2015, that first developed the Plume du Peintre range. This name – which translates as ‘the painter’s quill’ – also refers to their feathered friend.

Ambre says it’s the name of a small colourful feather found on the woodcock’s wing that hunters take as a trophy; it’s also used by artists to sign their finished canvases.

The Plume du Peintre process

Domaine de la Mordorée is located in Tavel, but also has some excellent vineyards over the river in Châteauneuf, including some very old vines grown on galets roulés on the plateau of La Crau. Though the exact blend changes from vintage to vintage, the La Plume du Peintre Châteauneuf is always based on this parcel as it delivers particularly structured, powerful wines.

It isn’t produced every year. The first vintages were in 2003 and 2005, made by Christophe, then, after a long hiatus, Ambre produced a 2019 and a 2022.

She accompanies her best parcels through the growing season, then, if volumes are sufficiently generous and she feels that ‘something is happening here’, she will isolate plots and vinify and age them separately. Then it’s a case of ‘taste, taste, taste’, and if the quality is high enough, they are bottled separately as La Plume du Peintre.

La Plume du Peintre Lirac and Tavel

During the gap between the original and recent vintages of La Plume du Peintre Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the range started encompassing other appellations, but ‘it’s always a story of old vines’, says Ambre, ‘as that’s where you find the complexity’.

Domaine de la Mordorée produced La Plume du Peintre Lirac rouge in 2012 and 2016, Lirac blanc in 2017 and 2023, and Tavel in 2019, 2022 and 2023. All are drinking well now, with particular highlights being the Lirac blanc 2023 and Tavel 2023. (See tasting notes below).

Changing tastes

The 2003 and 2005 vintages of La Plume du Peintre Châteauneuf offer a clear contrast to the 2019 and 2022, and these two pairs provide a neat illustration of how times and tastes have changed in the region.

The 2003 and 2005 are huge wines of extreme ripeness, with toasty oak, potent alcohol and robust tannins – very much wines of their day. The alcohol in the 2003 feels particularly high, but the 2005 finds balance despite its proportions, and exhibits more freshness and harmony than the 2003, which is almost a caricature of Châteauneuf, but it’s undeniably complex and offers huge hedonistic pleasure.

The 2019 and 2022 are very different; picked at a more restrained level of ripeness, without such invasive oak treatment, they feel more precise and focused, if less high-spirited and exuberant.

La Plume de Peintre Châteauneuf-du-Pape vintages

2003: One third each of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre from lieux-dits La Crau and Bois de la Ville; aged in new oak barriques for 12 months.

2005: Pure Grenache from La Crau; aged in new oak barriques for 12 months.

2019: Pure Grenache from La Crau; aged in two-year-old barriques for 10 months.

2022: 80% Grenache, 10% Syrah and 10% Mourvèdre, from lieux-dits La Crau and La Nerthe; aged in two-year-old barriques for 10 months.

Positive evolution

The 2003 vintage was like nothing the region had seen before – a year of intense heat and drought. Such extreme conditions were a novelty at the time, and they offered new opportunities to explore, opening up possibilities that chimed with prevailing tastes.

Many modern Châteauneufs of this era have since collapsed under their own weight, but the 2005 Plume du Peintre shows that some wines of this period excelled and will continue to provide pleasure for decades.

Today, most of us would rather enjoy a more balanced, fresher expression, and the winemaking approach in 2019 and 2022 has evolved to suit current appetites. Though still concentrated and powerful, they’re more approachable and precise than those earlier years, though Ambre wonders if they’ll age for quite as long.

Like early jungle music, the modern Châteauneufs are relics of their time, experiments with very mixed results. Most contemporary versions are more measured, no longer in thrall to extreme ripeness, and certainly easier to drink.

But the most successful wines of that era have a raucous fun and infectious enthusiasm that’s hard not to love.

Domaine de la Mordorée La Plume du Peintre

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In the world of white wines, it has few comparisons. In a sea of lesser bottles, Châteauneuf-du-Pape blanc is a shark among fish, a Great White, a wine of power and drama with the capacity to age and develop for decades.

But despite all of this, the region’s white wines remain stubbornly in the shadow of the reds. Production and plantings, however, are on the up, as demand increases and more of us discover – or rediscover – this majestic Mediterranean classic.

Scroll down for notes and scores for Walls’ top white Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Varietal mix

‘What do you think of when you hear “Châteauneuf-du-Pape”?’ asks Victor Coulon of producer Domaine de Beaurenard. ‘The reds,’ he says. ‘But the history of its whites is just as old.’

Red wines have always been in the majority in this part of the southern Rhône valley, but production of whites has just hit 8% of the total volume this year – the highest proportion since records began. Out of 310 producers making wine in the appellation, 143 now make a white, the regional authority states.

Of the nine white- and pink-skinned grapes permitted in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, four of them have significant plantings: mainly Grenache Blanc and Clairette (respectively 90.9ha and 76.2ha in 2024), followed by Roussanne and Bourboulenc (53.4ha and 32.2ha).

Wines are usually a blend, but can also be made from a single variety – as for Châteauneuf reds.

Despite being the most common white grape, Grenache Blanc is rarely exciting by itself. Few people know the appellation better than Michel Blanc, a director at the Châteauneuf syndicat, or governing body. He believes the grape’s invaluable contribution is that ‘it brings the rest together… it’s like the olive oil in your salad dressing’.

Since 1985, most new plantings have been of Roussanne, the syndicat says, as it contributes flavour, richness and complexity. But winemakers are increasingly questioning its suitability in light of climate change. Laurent Bréchet, owner of Château de Vaudieu, is one.

He says ‘Roussanne is too sensitive to heat and sun,’ and is putting his money instead on the rarest variety of all: Picardan. There are only 2ha of Picardan in the appellation; Bréchet has 0.75ha in production, with plans to plant another hectare in 2025.

‘It’s like a white Cinsault,’ he says, ‘with big, juicy grapes and big bunches. It has very good balance, being not too powerful with lots of drinkability, fruity but not heavy.’

Bréchet has just made what he claims to be the first ever commercially released Châteauneuf-du- Pape made from 100% Picardan.

Not all winemakers share Bréchet’s enthusiasm for Picardan – of the rarer varieties, Coulon (son of Daniel Coulon, who shares ownership with his brother Frédéric) prefers Clairette Rose, Grenache Gris and Picpoul Gris – but the quality of Bréchet’s new cuvée proves Picardan’s potential.

Occasions to open white Châteauneuf-du-Pape

If you’re looking for a light, thirst-quenching aperitif – this isn’t it!

Textural and opulent, with only mellow acidity, white Châteauneuf is best served with food. Thankfully, it’s versatile, particularly well suited to richer, flavoursome styles of cuisine: roasted white meats like veal, pork or chicken; or meaty fish such as turbot. Mature wines work well with cream sauces, mushrooms and understated spicing.

White Châteauneuf is the perfect winter white.

Stylistic evolution

Blanc feels that in the 1990s there was too much oak influence in the region’s whites, but today the use of new barrels tends to be more measured. Due to its generosity and fullness of body, white Châteauneuf does benefit from a degree of oak ageing, as it helps to shape and focus a wine that can otherwise veer towards flabbiness.

As with any extensive appellation (recorded as 3,188ha in all in 2024), quality varies. Some wines can be heavy, others overly alcoholic, and in certain cuvées excessive new oak still dominates.

As with red Châteauneuf, it’s best to go on recommendation rather than buying blind. And don’t assume a producer of brilliant reds will necessarily make great whites, or vice versa.

Opulence, power and flamboyance are often celebrated in red wines, but more rarely in whites. Managing to balance these attributes is the key, and it’s not always easy in a wine that possesses only moderate natural acidity.

But the estates with the necessary skills – and the right soils to match their white varieties – can create freshness and drinkability through aromatics, tension and salinity. It’s these structural elements, along with some sustaining alcohol, that give these wines their prodigious ageing potential.

Though delicious in their first four to five years, the sweet spot is between 10 and 20 years, when their pear and quince fruits take on layers of toasted nuts, honey and intricate spicing. In Châteauneuf, ‘the whites age as well as the reds’, says Coulon.

White Châteauneuf with age: What to expect

White Châteauneuf-du-Pape can be enjoyed straight after bottling, and is delicious for the first four or five years from harvest. It can then go through an oxidative phase, so it’s safer to wait until after the 10-year mark before continuing.

At this point, the wine becomes increasingly complex. It will remain full-bodied but gradually lose a little puppy fat; the best will retain their salinity and tension. Flavours of honey, nuts, mushrooms and positive oxidative flavours blossom with time.

Growing prominence

Though white plantings are increasing, 8% is still a fairly small proportion compared to other Rhône appellations such as Lirac, which, according to the appellation, makes 12% whites.

But Blanc believes that 8% could increase to 20% over the next 10-15 years – partly with the intention of making white wines and partly for blending into reds ‘to preserve balance in the face of climate change’.

As the region’s relationship with white grapes evolves, and the quality of its white wines improves, it’s time for Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s whites to emerge from the shadows.

White wines from estates such as Domaine de Beaurenard, Château de Beaucastel and Famille Isabel Ferrando prove that they can certainly stand shoulder to shoulder with the region’s more famous reds.

Older vintages to drink now

Vintages from 2023 back to 2020 are delicious now, but if you have any 2019s through to 2016s, leave them to mature somewhere cool. The 2015s are starting to open up again, and the 2014s – a superlative year for white Châteauneuf – are extremely good now.

Between 10 and 20 years old is a sweet spot for those that enjoy a mature style, but great vintages like 2001 and 1999 will last much longer.

If you like white Rioja, white Hermitage or white Bordeaux, then you should try white Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Top white Châteauneuf-du-Pape:

The first 20 wines were featured in the December 2024 issue of Decanter, followed by 12 additional wines.

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Châteauneuf-du-Pape: Revisiting 2020 in-bottle

Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2020: Best value wines

What feeling does an exceptional wine create when you drink it? It’s difficult to answer, as the greatest bottles give rise to all sorts of different sensations, insights and emotions.

It makes writing a ranking of this nature tricky, as not all the wines are being measured on the same scale. Some excel thanks to the pleasure they give, others might capture the spirit of an extraordinary site and certain wines teach us something new.

Scroll down for Matt’s top 10 wines of 2024

But it’s certainly fun to try – thinking back over the best wines I’ve tasted this year has been an indulgent treat.

First, let’s consider pleasure. It’s the easiest factor to measure. The scale starts with that most basic, four-letter word – nice. There are many everyday wines that deliver a pleasurable mouthful but demand no more effort from us.

At the other end of the scale there are wines that trigger a cascade of aromas, textures and other wonderful sensations, otherworldly nectars that cause our eyes to roll back into our heads – wines like Château Rayas 2012.

Seeking pleasure

Seeking pleasure is surely the most common reason to reach for a bottle, but open a wine at the right moment and it can deliver not just on a sensual level, but on an intellectual one too. That’s something that most of the wines on my list share – they were drunk during a favourable period during their evolution.

Wines can be delicious when young, but the greatest terroirs often only reveal themselves fully when the youthful fruit has dropped away. Older wines offer an array of complex, savoury, umami notes and share secrets of a great site that young wines rarely divulge.

Tasting Jean-Paul Jamet’s Côte-Rôtie 2000 brought the uniqueness of this sacred slope into spine-tingling focus.

Not all wines that made the cut were mature, however. Some wines, even if not yet in their ideal drinking window, create a deep sense of awe and wonder. That’s what bagged Vincent Paris’ Cornas La Geynale 2010 a spot on the list.

And it also explains why this 100-pointer didn’t make the number one spot – though it might do some time in the future.

The curveball

The Domaine L’Anglore Tavel Vintage 2015 is the curveball, a wine that’s all about texture, tension and salinity – and the first rosé (or, more accurately, clairet) to make it onto my annual list.

It’s a wine that reminded me of the brilliance of Eric Pfifferling, a man whose influence on Tavel is second to none. He unearthed the secrets of Tavel’s illustrious past – and creates wines that give hope for its future.

Sometimes even if you have tasted a wine before, when you open the bottle, it simply doesn’t perform. This can be caused by countless factors, from temperature to glassware to – some say – atmospheric pressure.

So when I took a gamble on a very young Bernard Faurie Hermitage Bessards Méal 2019 for a group of wine lovers – and everybody was wowed – I was relieved, elated and grateful to Bernard. That he recently retired made drinking it all the more profound.

It’s the only wine on my list that isn’t mature. But ready or not, it still offered sublime pleasure and a glimpse into Bernard’s unique vision of Hermitage – one that none of us will ever forget.

Matt Walls’ top 10 Rhône wines of 2024:

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I remember tasting the 2020 Châteauneufs after they’d spent a year in barrel. It wasn’t the joyful experience it perhaps should have been, as winemakers often appeared subdued.

It wasn’t due to the quality of the wines, but rather the timing of my trip; I was visiting them just as they’d finished picking their 2021s – a punishing vintage, marked by cool conditions, low yields and patchy quality.

The 2020s in my glass however were often outstanding. Not in the concentrated, structured style of the preceding 2019s, but in an altogether fresher, more elegant vein.

Scroll down for the top-scoring 2020 Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines to try

It was clear then that 2020 was a very good vintage – but was it a great one? I had some niggling doubts.

Would the Tradition bottlings (an estate’s main bottling, as opposed to its top Cuvée Spéciale), some of which appeared quite light, take on weight once bottled?

And given that it wasn’t as concentrated as vaunted vintages like 2019, 2016 and 2010, did it nonetheless have the longevity you’d expect from a top year?

I’ve been looking forward to revisiting the 2020 Châteauneufs in bottle to answer these questions. Having tasted over 100 examples, I’m now in no doubt that 2020 is an excellent year, in quite a distinct style.

Growing season

It was a relatively stress-free season for growers in Châteauneuf. According to Marilou Vacheron at Le Clos du Caillou, ‘the vines accumulated significant water reserves of more than 400mm in autumn and winter. In addition, the winter and spring temperatures were quite mild, leading to rapid budburst two weeks early’.

With no frost and a plentiful flowering, crop loads were generous.

Like 2019, it was another hot and dry year, but without the same extremities. Nights were marginally cooler too, ‘which allowed a good synthesis of anthocyanins and tannins,’ says Vacheron.

Despite some rains just before and during harvest, Caroline Charrier at Domaine Font de Courtedune remembers that ‘the health of the grapes was very good… we started the harvest around 7 September, so a normal year’.

Others, such as Fabrice Brunel at Domaine les Cailloux, started earlier.

‘It was a very early harvest. We started on 20 August and finished on 20 September,’ says Brunel, ‘the harvest was short and intense, with the different grapes and terroirs maturing closer to each other than normal,’ with all the different varieties performing well.

‘These conditions gave very good yields of quality grapes producing wines with a sunny profile but good balance,’ says Brunel. ‘Juicy wines with beautiful smooth tannins and a lovely aromatic complexity.’

The tasting

The brightness that made these wines so compelling from barrel has not diminished in bottle. Not just freshness of fruit flavour and brisk acidity, but the tannins have a cleansing and precise texture that make the wines feel enlivening.

It’s true that the 2020 vintage doesn’t always have the muscle of the most powerful vintages, but it certainly has sufficient concentration – it’s far from weak. There are no problems with underripeness. On the contrary, around 10% of the wines I tasted had an overripe, jammy or baked character.

The alcohol levels are fairly elevated, and sometimes simply too high. But don’t use published ABVs as a guide, as this is an overly simplistic approach. There are many wines that are rich in alcohol but nonetheless taste balanced and have a lot to offer. Smart use of whole bunches by some winemakers was beneficial in creating balance.

When I tasted the wines from barrel, a good number of Tradition bottlings felt a little light. But largely they have taken on the weight and density in bottle that I’d hoped, and there are a lot of excellent, well-balanced, relatively inexpensive wines to choose from. I’ll be publishing a list of top-performing sub-£50 wines in my next column, including six that scored 95 points.

Analysing my tasting notes this time around, I was surprised to see that most of the wines that I’d rejected were in fact Cuvées Spéciales; usually due to overoaking, overripeness or unbalanced alcohol.

Quality and longevity

When I first tasted the 2020 Châteauneufs, I had some lingering reservations about their longevity, particularly the lighter-seeming Traditions. But having revisited them in bottle, these doubts have since been extinguished.

Thanks to its bright and compact nature, many of the wines are approachable now or will be within a couple of years. And due to their freshness and balance, most have a comfortable lifespan of 15-20 years; some up to 30 years.

Most so-called ‘great vintages’ in Châteauneuf are ones with power and concentration. But ‘greatness’ in Châteauneuf can be expressed in more ways than one, and if you value freshness, energy and drinkability in Châteauneuf, then 2020 deserves that moniker too.

I asked Benjamin Gras of Domaine Santa Duc how he would rate the vintage, and his thoughts chimed with my own. ‘Perfection doesn’t exist, so therefore I’d say 19/20!’ he says.

If you can still find them on the market, don’t hesitate to snap them up.

2020 Châteauneuf revisited:

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Vinsobres

It was a very good vintage in Vinsobres, the wines expressing all the classic markers of this terroir: bold, punchy tannins and concentrated, dense fruit. Acid and alcohol levels were more balanced here than further south. If you’re unfamiliar with this cru, 2023 is a good year to explore it.

Not a subscriber? Sign up today to read the Rhône Report and all Premium articles. Use the code RHONE2023 at checkout to get 20% off your first subscription.

Rasteau

Rasteau performed very well too – juicy, fresh and ripe, with a touch of classic Rasteau sucrosité. Tannins can be on the low side, and in places the fruit can taste jammy, but these are largely well-balanced reds for early drinking. It’s not the equal of the superb 2020 vintage here, but it’s not far off.

Cairanne

Of the three appellations in question, Cairanne is the least consistent, but there is still no lack of good wines to recommend. The style is more compact compared to Vinsobres and Rasteau, dark in fruit but more petite than some recent vintages, fresh and drinkable. Though quite up-and-down overall, the best reds are worth seeking out. The whites however are consistently very good.

Key Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres producers in 2023

• Domaine des Escaravailles – Rasteau
• Domaine de Beaurenard – Rasteau
• Domaine Richaud – Cairanne
• Domaine Alary – Cairanne
• Château de Rouanne – Vinsobres
• Domaine L’Ancienne Ecole – Vinsobres

Best-value Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres wines in 2023

• Domaine Alary, L’Estevenas, Cairanne 2023
• Domaine des Escaravailles, Les Coteaux, Rasteau 2023
• Domaine Serre Besson, Vinsobres 2023

Under-the-radar Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres producers in 2023

• Château de Rouanne
• Domaine Wilfried
• La Ferme du Mont

Rhône 2023 full report and top-scoring wines

Southern Rhône 2023: The connoisseur’s guide

Compare vintages: See our coverage of Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres wines from previous years

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2022: Report and top-scoring wines

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2021: Report and top-scoring wines

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2020: Report and top-scoring wines

Matt Walls’ top-scoring Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2023 wines:

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Southern Rhône overall vintage rating: 3.5 / 5

A juicy, ripe vintage, relatively soft in tannin and acidity, but nonetheless displaying detailed terroir expression. Châteauneuf more mixed; some excellent, others overripe. Consistently good vintage for whites throughout the region.

Red wine of the vintage:

Domaine Santa Duc, Clos des Hospices, Gigondas, 2023

White wine of the vintage:

Domaine de Beaurenard Boisrenard, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2023

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Starting at the beginning

The story of a vintage really begins once the last of the previous year’s grapes have been harvested – so for 2023, we need to start by looking at the last quarter of 2022.

Thankfully, this period was very wet, with rain replenishing water reserves ahead of what turned out to be another parched growing season.

January to March 2023 was exceptionally dry, which is unusual for this time of year. From the 21 January to 21 February, not a drop fell from the sky.

‘We don’t have climate change here – we have a deregulated climate,’ says Vincent Avril of Clos des Papes. In other words, when it does rain it all comes at once, and scorching heatwaves are now common.

The lack of rain continued into April, coupled with a harsh, drying mistral. The water situation continued to be troubling until mid-May, when it finally started raining, with frequent small showers until the end of June. It didn’t amount to much, but it was enough.

Damp periods and warmth are perfect conditions for downy mildew and black rot, but it wasn’t as widespread or virulent as 2018. It affected yields more than quality.

See all 400 Rhône 2023 tasting notes and scores

Turning up the heat

July and early August were very warm, but it was nothing like 2022 (the hottest year on record in France); 2023 was beginning to look like an excellent vintage. Then temperatures took off like a rocket.

The week from 19-26 August was scorching, with temperatures over 40 ̊C. ‘It was like a microwave, like an oven,’ says Frédéri Férigoule of Le Sang des Cailloux in Vacqueyras.

His vines were grilled to the point that the young plants dropped their leaves. ‘But the old vines – no problem.’

Most white varieties could be picked before the end of the heatwave, and whites and rosés are delicious across the southern Rhône. The reds weren’t yet fully ripe, so they had to run the gauntlet.

Instant drinkability

On the plus side, ripeness is not an issue in 2023 – the region is awash with crowd-pleasing, approachable wines, with a fairly high baseline for quality. But a proportion are a little too juicy and easy, with low acidity, high alcohol and soft structure.

Keep an eye out for wines with Mourvèdre in the blend; it brings some welcome sinew in a year like this.

Comparing 2023 to recent vintages isn’t easy; 2022 is probably the closest, but the wines of 2023 have less-angular tannins and high alcohol levels. It’s comparable in terms of quality, but 2022 is probably fractionally better.

But the 2022s will take time to soften, whereas the 2023s will give pleasure immediately.

Read Matt Walls’ full vintage overview

Top southern Rhône producers in 2023

• Château de Beaucastel
• Château de Nalys
• Château de St Cosme
• Château Rayas
• Clos des Papes
• Domaine de Beaurenard
• Domaine de la Janasse
• Domaine de la Solitude
• Domaine des Bosquets
• Domaine l’Anglore

Top-scoring southern Rhône 2023 wines:

Highest scoring wines are listed white, then red in score order.

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Côtes du Rhône Villages is well known for offering great value for money, not just for France but throughout the world. There is however a tactic you can employ to further maximise bang for buck if you’re in search of a bargain.

Firstly, select a top-performing ‘named village’. There are currently 21 of these villages that can append their name onto the Côtes du Rhône Villages label, but not all of these villages, or terroirs, are equal.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for Domaine La Cabotte wines

If you happened to read my article earlier this year on Côtes du Rhône Villages Massif d’Uchaux – a secluded, wooded hill of limestone and sandstone to the north of Châteauneuf-du-Pape – you’ll know that this is one of the most promising.

Secondly, choose one of the best producers within the appellation. You can be confident they’ll be producing cru-level wine, but with considerably lower prices. A good example of this is Domaine La Cabotte.

From Burgundy to the Rhône

Domaine La Cabotte is owned by Marie-Pierre Plumet d’Ardhuy and her husband Eric Plumet.

If the name d’Ardhuy sounds familiar, that’s because you might have encountered the wines of her father Gabriel’s estate, Domaine d’Ardhuy: 39ha of Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits.

A cabotte is a vineyard hut in which Burgundian vignerons store their tools.

Gabriel used to spend his summers in the Rhône. In the summer of 1981, he was cycling across the Massif d’Uchaux when he came across a ramshackle estate for sale.

Having wanted to own vineyards in the area for many years, he bought it immediately.

Gabriel invited Marie-Pierre, one of his seven daughters, to join him and renovate it. At the time, there were 10ha of vines along with olives and lavender plantations. She set to work replanting more vineyards, and today they have 32ha.

Biodynamics in action

She replanted five hectares of white varieties, but they produced wines that she often found to be heavy. When she converted the estate to biodynamics, ‘the whites were completely transformed, right from the first year,’ she says, showing more purity, minerality and acidity. The reds followed a similar course, albeit more slowly.

Marie-Pierre and Eric were joined by their son Etienne in 2016. He had previously worked at Domaine de Beaurenard in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where he was in charge of its biodynamic preparations.

The family bought a small vineyard in Châteauneuf in 2005, followed by another parcel of old vines in 2015; today they own 1ha there. ‘It’s a lovely appellation, somewhat mythical… and a good shop window,’ she says, and it helps to attract people to the estate that don’t know Massif d’Uchaux.

She says that land in Châteauneuf costs over €500,000 per hectare, whereas land in Massif d’Uchaux costs €60,000-€80,000 per hectare.

But despite the discrepancy in land prices – and appellation prestige – I wouldn’t necessarily place their Châteauneuf above their Massif d’Uchaux. Both are excellent, just in different styles.

‘Châteauneuf is the land of Grenache, it brings power and alcohol,’ says Marie-Pierre. ‘I prefer finesse and freshness.’

You can tell where her heart is.

The range

The domaine makes two Massif d’Uchaux cuvées: Garance and Gabriel.

Garance is the main bottling, made of 50% Grenache, with the rest made of equal parts Syrah and Mourvèdre. It’s fermented and macerated for two to three weeks, then aged in concrete for 12 months.

Gabriel is a parcel selection, equal parts Grenache and Syrah. It’s fermented and aged in amphora for around 14 to 18 months.

Garance usually leads with red fruits, while Gabriel is darker in profile, a touch spicier and more concentrated. Both are wines of depth and finesse, and can age for 10 to 15 years in good vintages.

The pure Clairette La Sauvageonne will satisfy fans of the grape with all its soft, textural freshness. It too is grown on chalky Massif d’Uchaux terroir, but since it’s an appellation reserved for red wines only, this white is bottled under the Côtes du Rhône Villages appellation.

La Sauvageonne and Gabriel retail for around £20 a bottle in the UK. You can pick up Garance for £17 – and we’re talking about a refined, ageworthy, biodynamic wine produced by a family-owned estate.

Great news for wine lovers like us. Less brilliant for the producers, who aren’t able to charge cru-level prices. The administrative cogs of the French appellation authorities are notoriously unhurried, but surely Massif d’Uchaux will eventually join the ranks of the other southern Rhône crus.

In the meantime, this is a great example of the value you can find in the Villages if you know where to look.

Walls’ reviews of Domaine La Cabotte wines:

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Imagine you’re an actor in a film with a large ensemble of other highly competent artists. None of you are household names. But the lead role has just been cast – and it’s gone to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

On the one hand, it’s good to have a superstar to draw attention to the movie. But on the other hand, you can’t help but feel in the shadow of this huge, charismatic individual.

That’s what it must be like sometimes, to be a winemaker in the southern Rhône.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for 17 Sablet wines

It’s unusual for a whole wine region to be so dominated by one name, but Châteauneuf-du-Pape is recognised the world over. In terms of fame, no other Rhône appellation compares.

Châteauneuf is famous for big, powerful, muscular wines, so it’s unsurprising that people sometimes measure other Rhône appellations by the same yardstick. But other terroirs are bound to come up short, as they just don’t deliver that kind of wine. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t just as valid in their own way.

Can elegance, for example, be a strength? I think it can.

For those looking for a more compact expression of the southern Rhône, one that celebrates finesse, Sablet is a good place to look.

Against the grain

Sablet is one of the 21 named villages of the southern Rhône. It’s situated next door to Gigondas, at the foot of the Dentelles de Montmirail massif.

If you try to make a Châteauneuf-style red here – dark in colour, concentrated, with bold tannins – you’re destined to fail. The terroir will simply not provide that – because Sablet is built on sand.

In fact, sable is the French for sand.

There’s safre here too – a compact sandstone that’s ‘almost harder than rock,’ according to appellation co-president Philippe Lambert of Domaine des Pasquiers.

You can spot jagged lumps of it like broken paving slabs around the perimeter of some vineyards where they’ve been hauled out the ground by tractors.

A third of the terrain here is made up of these sandy soils, laid down when the area was flooded by the Mediterranean Sea millions of years ago.

Grow red grapes on sand, and typically what you’ll get is a wine that’s relatively pale in colour, medium-bodied rather than full, with very fine tannins. White and rosé wines usually have a refined, elegant style too, when produced from these soils.

According to Loïc Alazard of Domaine les Sibu, the other co-president of the appellation, ‘it’s our signature – purity and elegance.’

Cast and cru

For most wine lovers, a pale colour isn’t a problem when it comes to red wines. If you pour a Pinot Noir, a Cinsault or a Poulsard that’s overly dark, it’s grounds for suspicion.

But the southern Rhône is a region that prizes a deep, dark hue in the glass. Perhaps that’s one factor that’s held Sablet back from being promoted to cru status.

Sablet was given ‘named village’ status back in 1974 – this year marks its 50th anniversary – yet winemakers are still struggling to push it further up the appellation rankings.

Lambert and Alazard are leading a contingent of dedicated winemakers, ‘but it takes a lot of time,’ says Lambert – they have to toil away on the project after work for free. But for Alazard, success will be worth it.

‘To be a cru is a sign of quality, of prestige,’ he says. ‘As a village, we’re a child; but as a cru, we’ll be an adult.’

Alazard is in his 30s, and lists eight or so other domaines that are in the hands of colleagues of a similar age. A new generation is gradually taking over, which he hopes will be a source of renewed energy and resolve.

Of the now-21 named villages of the southern Rhône (Laudun was recently promoted from village to cru), it’s clear that Sablet is among the most deserving of promotion.

Its wines have an identifiable natural style, one that celebrates nuance and elegance.

Just like Hollywood, the southern Rhône can do many styles well. And sometimes, rather than Arnold Schwarzeneggar, it’s Timothée Chalamet that’s right for the role.

17 Sablet wines to try

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French officials have recognised Laudun as a communal appellation, and 2024 will be the first vintage for this new cru of the Rhône Valley.

Classified at the lower level of Côtes du Rhône Villages with geographical designation since 1967, Laudun was promoted to cru level by the National Committee of the French appellation authority, Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO), on 11 September this year.

It joins the ranks of well-known appellations, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Hermitage, as one of the 18 crus of the Rhône Valley.

The new AOP (AOC) Laudun will produce reds and whites, but rosé wines will no longer be permitted under appellation regulations.

Grape varieties used are similar to other Rhône appellations. The principal red varieties are Syrah and Grenache, with a host of secondary varieties permitted such as Mourvèdre, Carignan, Cinsault, Counoise and Vaccarèse.

Whites must have Grenache Blanc and Clairette as principal varieties, with others such as Roussanne, Viognier and Bourboulenc also permitted.

The appellation has historically been famous for the quality of its white wines.

In 2023, 30% of Laudun’s production was white, according to regional trade body Inter Rhône.

Laudun is located in the southern Rhône on the west bank of the Rhône river, in the Gard département.

It consists of three communes: Laudun, Saint-Victor-la-Coste and Tresques, which surround the River Tave, a tributary of the Rhône.

In 2023, there were 591 hectares of vineyard in production. Soils are particularly sandy, with some rocky limestone, too.

‘This recognition requires us to invest even more in the quality of our wines in order to consolidate our place within the great and beautiful family of crus,’ said Luc Pélaquié, president of AOP Laudun.

The first wines are expected to be available commercially in early 2025.

The last appellation promoted to cru level was Cairanne in 2015.

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Domaine JL Chave has been handed down from father to son since 1481. Domaine Alary, in Cairanne, isn’t quite so old – its family of owners has been tending vines since 1692. Domaine de Piéblanc was founded rather more recently: this domaine has just celebrated its 10th anniversary.

‘It’s not a domaine I took over, it’s one I created,’ says the domaine’s owner, Matthieu Ponson. He says there are two reasons for his success. Firstly, ‘I’m not from here,’ he says. And secondly, when he started making wine, ‘I wasn’t a vigneron.’

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Domaine de Piéblanc

Ponson might be a newcomer but he is already making impressive wines across several southern Rhône appellations, despite the fact that – or perhaps because – he’s an outsider.

Not that Ponson was born thousands of miles away – he grew up in Cornas in the northern Rhône. He went to school with Franck Balthazar and is friends with Thierry Allemand, two highly regarded Rhône winemakers. Ponson’s family weren’t winemakers however, so his path to winemaking wasn’t so direct.

Ponson’s path

After his studies, Ponson moved to Lyon and became an engineer – and a successful one. He worked for 15 years in telecoms, and eventually founded his own company. ‘But my passion was always wine,’ he says. He sold the company in 2014.

By this time, he had already dipped his toe into wine. Along with his brother Thomas (owner of Restaurant Thomas in Lyon, which, according to Ponson, has ‘the best Cornas list you’ll ever find’), he is one of the investors behind Cornas vigneron Vincent Paris’ purchase of La Geynale.

By the time he was ready to establish his own estate, the price of land in Cornas had become prohibitive. So he looked south.

Now to us wine lovers in London, New York – anywhere else outside the Rhône – the distance between Cornas and Ponson’s winery in Gigondas might seem negligible; it’s less than 100km. But let me tell you a story.

I once asked a winemaker in Valréas how she thought her wines compared to the neighbouring appellation of Vinsobres. She replied ‘Oh, I wouldn’t know. I’ve never tasted a Vinsobres.’

To some southern Rhône vignerons, Cornas might as well be the Moon.

The obvious place for a newcomer to consider in the southern Rhône might be Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but Ponson wanted to work with fresher terroirs – so he focused on vineyards in and around the Dentelles de Montmirail.

He started with 10ha of Ventoux near the village of Caromb, surrounded by pines and olive trees. After that, he acquired a 15ha parcel of Grenache and Syrah in the appellation of Beaumes de Venise, high up in Suzette, between 350m and 400m.

Finally, he purchased 6ha of Gigondas. With a background in large building projects, he felt well equipped to create ‘the cellar of his dreams,’ he says.

The dream winery

The juice is fed by gravity, and use of wood is limited – he favours stainless steel for fermenting, concrete and amphorae for ageing. Being new to the region and to winemaking, he had a clean slate.

‘We’re not stuck in a particular method,’ he says.

Inside, it’s an attractive, airy, functional space. It’s a handsome building on the outside too; not overtly modern, but it certainly stands out in the region – for its sheer newness if nothing else.

But not everyone agrees. Ponson says that some locals feel the structure is too contemporary, and they don’t appreciate ‘this foreigner buying vines here’.

He feels it would be the same in any agricultural setting however, not just in the southern Rhône. ‘It doesn’t bother me,’ he says, ‘sometimes it’s just jealousy.’

And not everyone has been unfriendly. Domaine Santa Duc is another estate with modern buildings, and Ponson says that owner Yves Gras has been welcoming.

‘He always opened his door to me and offered advice,’ says Ponson.

In comparison with Cornas, the residents of Gigondas have ‘a much stronger accent, they speak with more hand gestures… Like Yves, they are always joking,’ says Ponson.

In Cornas, people are ‘nice – but more reserved, less exuberant,’ he says. He adds that there’s even a discernible difference between the people of Gigondas and Vacqueyras next door.

Doing things differently

Perhaps it’s Ponson’s outsider status that makes him more open to experimentation. Having recently attained organic certification, he’s now looking to biodynamics. He’s also making trials with whole-bunch fermentation, carbonic maceration, and other techniques that aren’t so traditional here.

The resulting wines feel as contemporary as his new winery. His limpid reds are candid reflections of place, and strike a balance between volume and drinkability. They’re not overly extracted, leaving some space for the wine to relax and open up – Mediterranean wines of finesse and detail.

One thing I’ve noticed with outsider winemakers is that they’re often driven and impatient; they have something to prove. In just 10 years, Piéblanc has already made a strong case.

Six Domaine de Piéblanc wines to try:

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In a warming climate, there is one characteristic in wine that is increasingly coveted: freshness. This is why Ventoux, once a marginal climate for quality wines, finds itself in an increasingly strong position.

Although most of the appellation’s vineyards are at the foot of the mountain, vines are climbing ever upwards, and have now reached 550m above sea level. With Mont Ventoux’s summit at 1,912m, they’ve got plenty of room to grow.

I tasted 56 wines in ascending elevation to see when the freshness of altitude becomes discernible. I was expecting a clear correlation between height and freshness; the reality, however, is more complex.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for top picks from Ventoux

Benefits of altitude

For wines to feel fresh, they need an adequate level of acidity. Tartaric acid can be purchased and added to the fermenting juice; but ‘freshness’ is something money can’t buy. It’s a combination of factors, including acidity, vibrant aromatics, crisp tannic structures and refreshing drinkability.

All of these attributes can come from growing wines at higher altitudes. In short, ‘higher means cooler,’ according to Philippe Gimel of Saint Jean du Barroux. ‘It means fresher conditions, more acidity, and all the benefits given by the acidity to the wines.’

Gimel isn’t the only one to have wines in the fortified village of Le Barroux – the monks of the local abbey also make wine under the name Via Caritatis (‘the way of charity’). Father Odon is in charge of the vineyards, and he says the diurnal temperature differences from growing wines at altitude are highly beneficial.

‘The harvest in the Via Caritatis vineyards is two or three weeks later compared to the vineyards of the plains located only a few kilometres away,’ he says. ‘The altitude, and in particular the alternation of hot days and cool nights with late harvests ‘à la cool’ – that is to say with cold temperatures – bring elegance and finesse.’

Corinna Faravel of Domaine Martinelle adds that altitude can also mean slightly lower alcohol levels, and ‘fresher, less cooked aromas’.

The sweet spot

Ventoux is one of the biggest appellations in France with nearly 6,000 hectares under vine, and vineyards stretch from 100m above sea level up to 550m; not all Ventoux wines are grown at altitude. Some winemakers, like Faravel, believe that the effects of altitude are felt gradually as you ascend the mountain. ‘Every metre is beneficial,’ she says.

Others feel there’s a specific point at which the benefits kick in. Albin Combe of Domaine Vindemio says: ‘Below 300m the climate is essentially the same regardless of the altitude. Above 300m the thermometer drops a few degrees and this changes the entire climate in small steps. A little more freshness and a little more water.’

‘Be careful though,’ he adds, ‘you must take into account the type of soil, which has just as much impact as the altitude.’ And this is where things get complicated.

A complex picture

Sensations of freshness in a wine don’t just come from altitude. As Combe points out, soil plays a role: limestone typically creates a fresher profile than clay. Choice of grape varieties matters too.

Picking dates also affect acidity and flavour profiles. And then there’s winemaking – withholding malolactic conversion in whites, for example. Most of all, the direction the vineyard faces has an impact – a north-facing plot at 300m might produce fresher wines that a south-facing plot at 500m.

And even if a vineyard is located high in the hills, the freshening effect can be dulled by over-extraction, unbalanced alcohol or heavy-handed barrel ageing. While there is some correlation between freshness and altitude, whether you feel it in the resulting wine is far from guaranteed.

The reds

I tasted 41 reds in four altitude bands: 100-200m, 200-300m, 300-400m, and 400-500m.

100m to 200m: These wines often had good definition, clarity of flavour and well-balanced acidity, but they were more about succulent berry fruits than freshness. Though it was harder to ascertain a consistent Ventoux character, there were some very good individual wines.

200m to 300m: A step up in terms of freshness and sense of place. These felt more classically Ventoux in their acidity, edgy tannin structure and brightness of fruit. Some lovely wines, and often very affordable.

300m to 400m: The strongest performing segment, even if some 2021s tasted like they struggled to ripen at this altitude, while lower down the mountain this effect was less marked. The expression of Syrah at this level is unusually fresh and spicy for the Southern Rhône.

400m to 500m: Some strong individual wines, but others lacking the effects of altitude due to excessive ripeness or oak. Despite the strong house styles of some of the best wines, they nonetheless offered a good sense of freshness.

The whites

I tasted the whites in the same four altitude bands, but at just 15 wines it’s harder to generalise about the effects of altitude. There were wines with freshness at all levels, again particularly at the 300-400m band.

Even whites from the 2022 vintage, which can be a little heavy in the Southern Rhône, are relatively vibrant and drinkable in Ventoux. Clairette performs particularly well here, producing wines of admirable brightness and compelling fragrance.

The whites were more consistent than the reds; 80% of the whites scored over 90-points, while only 50% of the reds scored over 90.

In both colours, there are plenty of wines from Ventoux that exhibit a ‘southern freshness’ in the words of Faravel – wines that combine the fullness and generosity of the Southern Rhône with an enlivening drinkability. It’s not guaranteed, nor is it always derived from altitude alone, but elevated vineyards appear to be a factor.

‘In this world, which is changing so profoundly, the relief and altitude of [our] vineyards give hope,’ says Faravel. ‘Some historic Great Terroirs are particularly exposed; and others, sometimes less known, can offer new perspectives.’

This tasting showed that the best wines of Ventoux now exhibit cru-level quality. And with plenty of scope to plant higher up, Ventoux is surely the most future-proof appellation in the Rhône. Good news for local winemakers, and for us.

Fresh Ventoux wines

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An awful lot of wine is made under the generic Côtes du Rhône appellation. Around 167 million bottles in 2022, to be precise. And while much of this is pretty average, a small proportion transcends the appellation. The greatest of all is Château de Fonsalette.

It’s one of the three estates owned by Emmanuel Reynaud. The most famous of the three is Château Rayas in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. And although Fonsalette is not as well known, the wines are still extremely desirable. Hedonism Wines in London currently sells the 2009 at £580 per bottle.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 22 Massif d’Uchaux wines to try

The property is situated 20km north of Châteauneuf in Lagarde-Paréol, which is one of the five villages (along with Mondragon, Piolenc, Sérignan-du-Comtat and Uchaux) that make up the Côtes du Rhône Villages Massif d’Uchaux appellation.

It’s not exactly a household name. Would Massif d’Uchaux be better known if Château de Fonsalette used the appellation on its labels? Undoubtedly, and it could if it wanted to. But the Reynaud family has been making wine here since long before the appellation existed, and I can’t imagine it changing its labels any time soon.

So this remains something of a hidden terroir. And that’s certainly how it feels as you make your way from one tree-lined vineyard to another; it’s shady and quiet here – except for the birdsong.

Wooded idyll

The Uchaux massif is mostly forest. Commercial vineyards only arrived after the Second World War, along with the heavy machinery required to clear enough trees to plant vines.

There have been small vineyards here for hundreds if not thousands of years, but it was never the most obvious place to grow vines. Not so long ago, quantity was favoured over quality – and yields here are among the lowest in the southern Rhône as the soils are so poor. The vast hill is an island of sandstone and limestone with a covering of red clay – much older soils than the galets roulés that encircle it. But persevering is worthwhile, as the wines it produces have a style all of their own.

These wooded vineyards create wines with clarity of expression and detail – they have a fluency without needing to shout. They have an acidity and spice that lifts and gives focus to an aromatic palette that’s built around raspberry and Szechuan pepper.

The appellation was ratified in 2005 for red wines only, since so few whites were made at that time. But they do grow white varieties here, and the results can be just as electric. Local winemakers are lobbying for a change to the rules to include them; though bottled under Côtes du Rhône or Vin de France, I’ve included some local whites in the tasting notes below.

Overperforming estates

Fonsalette might be its most famous estate, but it’s not the only one producing excellent wines here. I spoke recently with ace winemaker Jérôme Bressy of Domaine Gourt de Mautens near Rasteau, who was full of praise for Eric Michel of Cros de la Mûre. I share Jérôme’s enthusiasm.

Another Massif d’Uchaux estate which deserves wider renown is Domaine la Cabotte. Marie-Pierre Plumet d’Ardhuy, whose father owns Domaine d’Ardhuy in Burgundy, moved here in 1981.

Together with her husband Eric and son Etienne, they have been working their 30ha estate biodynamically since 2007. They are wines of subtlety and finesse that I’ll be writing about in detail soon.

Château Simian, a biodynamic estate that’s improved greatly in the past 10 years, is another name to know. Its reds and whites from this terroir are among the finest, channelling the tension and spice that defines the wines grown on this hill.

Florian Serguier is the owner and winemaker, and he’s recently taken on the post of co-president of the appellation. It’s been somewhat rudderless since 2015, so he should provide some much-needed direction.

‘Our first piece of work is to get ourselves better known,’ he says. Unifying such diverse characters won’t be easy.

Frustratingly, few of these wines are easy to find in the UK market. But if nobody talks about this place and its wines, then Massif d’Uchaux is fated to remain a hidden appellation.

It took Gigondas decades to be promoted to cru status. It will likely take Massif d’Uchaux just as long. But I’ve no doubt that this exceptional terroir deserves it.

22 wines to try

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As I drove into a small hamlet just north of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, I wondered which building was Château Mont-Redon. It quickly became clear that the hamlet was Château Mont-Redon.

The average Châteauneuf estate has 10 hectares of vines and a small, functional winery. Mont-Redon has its own petrol station and full-time mechanic to service its fleet of tractors. It’s big enough to have a library of older vintages going back decades. I paid a visit to find out if its reputation for exceptionally long-lived wines is merited.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 28 wines tasted across six decades

A Châteauneuf whale

I toured the grounds with the current owner, Pierre Fabre. There are 40 permanent staff, and they can house a further 60 seasonal workers here. ‘It’s a small town,’ said Fabre, ‘the only things we don’t have are a church and a bakery!’

The Fabre family celebrated 100 years at Mont-Redon last year, but the estate’s roots go back much further. In 1344, these vineyards were owned and farmed by the church. They were later purchased by Provençal poet Anselme Mathieu (1828-1895), and, after the area was devastated by phylloxera, the estate was bought by Fabre’s great-grandfather Henri Plantin in 1923.

When Plantin bought the estate, the vineyard area had dwindled to just 2.5ha. Today, Mont-Redon is the second-largest estate in the appellation with 95.7ha of vines (the largest is Vignobles Quiot with 98ha; the third is Vignobles Brunier with 95.6ha).

A monumental block

Fabre and I climbed to the top of a viewing platform at the edge of the winery. We surveyed a vast regiment of woody vines standing to attention on an endless sea of parchment-coloured stones.

For a large Châteauneuf estate, to own one continuous block of vines is rare; most have small parcels dotted all over. Fabre says it’s easier to cultivate like this, but if there’s a localised hailstorm your whole harvest can be wiped out in an instant. ‘What would be less good,’ he says, ‘is having one block with all the same soil.’

The view behind us stretches across bleached limestone and yellow sands interspersed with woodland. The estate’s Châteauneuf is a blend of all three soils.

Most of the appellation’s permitted grapes are grown here, with 60% of the land planted with Grenache, and an unusually high proportion of Syrah, at 31%. Fabre finds it performs well on the sandier soils, giving fresh aromatics, red fruit flavours and soft but grippy tannins. He also grows Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Muscardin. Experiments with Vaccarèse have been promising, but he finds Counoise too dilute.

A more successful experiment has been with the ‘Bakus’ driverless electric tractors, made by French company Vitibot. Fabre says Mont-Redon is the first estate in the Rhône to use them, and that they complete tasks twice as fast as those with drivers.

Château Mont-Redon’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape:

Grapes: A blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Counoise, Muscardin, Vaccarèse

Soils: Galets roulés, sand and limestone

Harvest: Hand-picked and sorted, all destemmed

Winemaking: Natural yeasts used where alcohol levels allow. Punching down at the start of fermentation only.

Ageing: Matured 50% in stainless steel tank, 35% in 228-litre barrels (one quarter new) and 15% in large old foudres for about 12 months. Further 6 months maturation after bottling

Production: Average production between 200,000 and 220,000 bottles

Any lots that aren’t satisfactory after tasting are sold in bulk

An extensive tasting

The tasting started with some recent vintages of Domaine Oratoire St Martin, a leading Cairanne estate which was bought in 2020. As if that wasn’t enough, the Fabre family also bought Domaine du Joncier in Lirac in 2021. Both estates are certified biodynamic – will Mont-Redon follow suit? ‘The boat is too big to turn quickly,’ says Fabre, but organic would be a good first step, and they are not far off.

The first five vintages of Mont-Redon’s ‘Le Plateau’, a new top-tier cuvée first produced in 2016, were also brought out to try. It’s a blend of Grenache and Syrah taken exclusively from old vines grown on a field of galets roulés. These are immensely powerful wines that will be very long lived, but it’s currently hard to see past the robust new oak influence – I look forward to tasting them again when they’re ready.

‘We have absolute faith in the longevity of our wines,’ says Fabre as we embark upon a tasting of 18 vintages of his classic Châteauneuf, from 2022 back to 1961.

Click here for more wines from the Château Mont-Redon stable

Arc of maturity

When young, the wines can show some oak influence and they take time to take shape, sometimes lacking harmony or appearing disjointed. A typical vintage starts drinking well around seven years old; powerful vintages take three to four years longer.

Mont-Redon isn’t an overtly ripe Châteauneuf; it’s relatively lean, dry and tense. It isn’t the most concentrated expression, but that doesn’t mean it’s one for early drinking. On the contrary, this athletic shape gives it staying power.

It doesn’t excel every year. Lesser vintages like 2018 and 2011 were considerably weaker than the highly impressive 2020 and 2010. The surprise of the tasting was the 2013, which was remarkably fresh, pure and well balanced. Given its affordable price tag, buying in top years with long ageing in mind is a smart move.

At around 20 years old the wines start to take on real complexity, with layers of game and chestnut over strawberry and plum fruits. As the wines approach 30 years old, the gaminess subsides to reveal notes of menthol, wet earth and mushroom. Around 40 years old, aromas of smoke and black olive come to the fore. At 50, orange peel and dried rose petal notes emerge. The oldest wines we tasted, from the 1960s, were still fascinating and delicious, with the oldest displaying balsamic notes, madeirised touches, soy and meat stock.

Though the staying power of southern Rhône wines is often underestimated, Châteauneuf has an incredible life force. Along with its physical scale, it’s the longevity of its wines that give this appellation such grandeur. To cover hectares is impressive, but to straddle decades is altogether more profound.

Tasting notes and score for 28 wines tasted across six decades:

Wines are ranked from youngest to oldest

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• Walls: 26 value Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines to try

When I saw the first upside-down village sign, I put it down to some bored, teenage prankster. But as I drove through one village after another on my way to Séguret, every village sign had been inverted. It transpired that this was a sign of solidarity for local farmers who feel under attack.

Their protests have since made headline news around the world, as agricultural workers have blocked roads and dumped manure in front of municipal buildings across France. There are many tangled grievances: burdensome paperwork, painful taxation, increasing energy bills, rising prices of other goods, and competition from cheap imported food and drink.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 22 Côtes du Rhône Villages Séguret wines to try

Winemakers are suffering alongside other rural businesses, but they’re also facing a sustained drop in demand for red wine from their own countrymen. Young people don’t drink wine with every meal like their parents might once have done, and everyday consumption is on the wane.

As stated in a report published in February 2024 by the International Organisation for Vine and Wine, total French wine production has significantly decreased since 2000. ‘Red wine production has declined significantly both in absolute and in relative terms,’ says the report, ‘from 33.5m hectolitres in 2000 (56% of the total) to 12.2m hectolitres in 2021 (33% of the total).’

It’s a tough time to be a vigneron.

Côtes du Rhône Villages Séguret: Factfile

Appellation created: 1967

Total surface area bottled in 2022: 432ha

Average yield in 2022: 35hl/ha (maximum 51hl/ha)

Production in 2022: 92% red, 3% rosé, 5% white

Permitted grape varieties:

Reds and rosés must be a blend of at least two principal varieties (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre) and must include Grenache; 17 other local varieties also permitted.

Whites must contain a majority of principal varieties Bourboulenc, Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier; may also include Piquepoul Blanc and Ugni Blanc.

Less but better

I met up with two growers when I arrived in Séguret, who are also the co-presidents of the appellation: Mathilde Suter, fourth-generation winemaker at Domaine de l’Amandine, and Karine Mérigot, one of just five female members of the 100-strong Cave Coopérative de Roaix Séguret.

Mérigot points out that it’s not easy to name many estates these days who manage to stay afloat from selling Côtes du Rhône alone – the drop in demand in the local market has been particularly acute at the cheaper end. Fortunately, both producers own some land within Côtes du Rhône Villages Séguret, one of the 22 named villages that sit just below the nine southern Rhône crus (Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas etc) in the appellation hierarchy.

None of the 22 named villages are household names, but they do guarantee that the wines come from a specific village or terroir with its own local story and style. And crucially for winemakers, they fetch higher prices. Suter’s Côtes du Rhône costs €8.50 (£7.30) direct from the estate, while her Côtes du Rhône Villages Séguret cuvées cost €10 (£8.55) and €13 (£11.15). Still affordable for us as consumers, but still – crucially – sustainable for them. Without this extra lift, ‘life would be hard, really hard,’ says Suter.

Different sites, different styles

One thing is clear – it’s worth trading up. Séguret is a stone’s throw from Gigondas, and like its more famous neighbour it has significant vineyards at altitude within the Dentelles de Montmirail massif, an area called ‘La Montagne’. There are also some parcels around the picturesque village of Séguret itself, and just over half its vines – ‘La Plaine’ and ‘La Première Terrasse’ – are on the flatter land at the foot of the massif towards the river Ouvèze.

There are good wines from each of the different zones, but they are stylistically quite varied. The mountain wines, made from vines grown at 400m altitude on heavy marls, tend to be stronger in character: imposing, structured, long-lived (like those from Domaine de Mourchon, Domaine Eyguestre and Domaine Chamfort). Those lower down are planted on a complex matrix of clay limestone, sand and pebbles; they aren’t so dense, but have an enjoyable vibrancy and drinkability (such as Domaine de l’Amauve, Domaine de l’Amandine and Clos du Joncuas).

The whites have all the classic richness and intense flavour you’d expect from this part of the world, and are more or less aromatic depending on how much Viognier is used. Whites and rosés are both particularly reliable for the southern Rhône, and refreshingly unembellished compared to the barrel-aged whites of Châteauneuf. Growers are busy planting more white varieties to meet the demand.

Promotion to cru level is a possible aim, but ‘the difficulty is the difference between the mountain and the plain,’ says Mérigot. It’s hard to talk about a single style of Séguret when the wines that issue from these different sectors have their own identities, despite both being delicious and valid in their own right.

Trading up

Wines from the generic Côtes du Rhône appellation have long been known as a source of great value. But there comes a point where prices become too low, and winemakers suffer as a result. Nobody wants that. There is no easy answer to the maelstrom of problems winemakers are suffering, particularly those making inexpensive reds. But as a simple cri de coeur if nothing else, I understand their need to remonstrate and bring attention to their plight.

The French appellation framework is often the target of invective – too restrictive, too slow to change. Such criticisms aren’t unfounded, but the system has its benefits too. Intermediate levels between generic wines and crus encourage growers to focus on quality, and can help them keep their heads above water at times like this. And for us, they’re a mark of inexpensive terroir wines that punch above their weight.

22 fantastic Côtes du Rhône Villages Séguret wines to try

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Rasteau

Outside Châteauneuf, the best performing appellation was Rasteau. There were no problems with green tannins here, which Jérôme Bressy of Domaine Gourt de Mautens believes is thanks to the abundance of clay. The 2022 vintage has delivered wines with bright fruit, good concentration and balanced alcohol. They are often robustly tannic however, so pay close attention to drinking windows.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and score for top Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2022 wines

See all 400 Rhône 2022 tasting notes and scores

Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Southern Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Cairanne

There are many good Cairannes as well, which are also more tannic than a typical year. Marcel Richaud reported low yields and grapes with very thick skins.

Most are juicy rather than deep in style, occasionally with subtle herbal nuances, either from use of whole bunches or from blockages in ripening. Cairanne whites are decent if less inspiring than the reds in 2022, and will be best drunk young.

Individual appellation analysis on:

Châteauneuf-du-Pape | Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise | Lirac & Tavel

Vinsobres

Vinsobres largely failed to live up to its potential this year. Wines tend to be either overly soft and alcoholic, or brandish thuggish tannins. There were a few exceptions that managed to find a balance.

Rhône 2022 score tables:

All top Rhône 2022 score table

Top-scoring southern Rhône 2022

Top-scoring northern Rhône 2022 

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 red wines

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 white wines

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2022 key producers:

• Domaine des Escaravailles, Rasteau
• Domaine Elodie Balme, Rasteau
• Domaine Clos Romane, Cairanne
• Domaine Richaud, Cairanne
• Famille Perrin, Vinsobres

Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2022 top value wines:

• Domaine Clos Romane, Cairanne Rouge 2022
• Domaine Fond Croze, Rasteau 2022
• Domaine La Collière, Esprit d’Argiles, Rasteau 2022
  

Matt Walls’ top-scoring Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2022 wines:

See below the top-scoring Rasteau, Cairanne and Vinsobres wines, listed by appellation and white then red in score order.

Related articles

• Walls: Rasteau 2020 in bottle
• Behind Rasteau’s renaissance plus 10 ‘new look’ bottles to seek out
• Regional profile: Cairanne

Lirac

On top of drought and intense heat in 2022, the west bank of the Rhône also had to deal with hail, which caused localised damage.

The reds in Lirac are very concentrated this year, sometimes overripe or sternly tannic. The whites and rosés based on Clairette tend to be the most vibrant.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and score for top Lirac & Tavel 2022 wines

See all 400 Rhône 2022 tasting notes and scores

Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Southern Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Tavel

It’s not a terribly fresh year for Tavel either, but standards are improving here, with a new generation producing increasing numbers of wines with character and personality.

Individual appellation analysis on:

Châteauneuf-du-Pape | Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise | Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres

Rhône 2022 score tables:

All top Rhône 2022 score table

Top-scoring southern Rhône 2022

Top-scoring northern Rhône 2022 

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 red wines

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 white wines

Lirac & Tavel 2022 key producers:

• Château de Manissy, Tavel
• Domaine des Carabiniers, Tavel
• Domaine Lafond, Tavel
• Château de Montfaucon, Lirac
• Domaine de Castel Oualou, Lirac

Lirac & Tavel 2022 top value wines:

• Rocca Maura, Lirac Blanc 2022
• Château de Manissy, Langoustière, Tavel 2022
• Prieuré de Montézargues, Tavel 2022
  

Matt Walls’ top-scoring Lirac & Tavel 2022 wines:

See below all of the Tavel and Lirac wines from the 2022 en primeur report.

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Gigondas

The picture is more mixed in Gigondas than in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, with more instances of unripe tannin due to higher crop loads or picking too early.

The successful wines have impact, freshness and low alcohol, even if they aren’t always terribly deep or long in flavour. The best however are excellent, and I share the opinion of Louis Barruol of Château de Saint Cosme that these will age with interest.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and score for top Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise 2022 wines

See all 400 Rhône 2022 tasting notes and scores

Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Southern Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Vacqueyras

Vacqueyras was more consistent, with fewer problems with phenolic ripeness. Frédéri Férigoule of Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux stressed the importance of green harvesting in 2022: ‘We had a good crop load, but it was too much to ripen,’ he says.

Vacqueyras reds are broadly juicy and well balanced this year with refreshingly moderate alcohol. Some are drinking well already, but other more tannic examples will benefit from a few years to soften up. The whites are rich and tropical, often with high alcohol.

Individual appellation analysis on:

Châteauneuf-du-Pape | Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres | Lirac & Tavel

Beaumes de Venise

Beaumes de Venise reds were also mixed, with some monstrously tannic wines which will likely never come round. But overall it was a good vintage here – wines with intensity and vibrancy. The sweet Muscats however tend towards heaviness.

Rhône 2022 score tables:

All top Rhône 2022 score table

Top-scoring southern Rhône 2022

Top-scoring northern Rhône 2022 

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 red wines

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 white wines

Key Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise producers in 2022

• Château de St Cosme, Gigondas
• Domaine des Bosquets, Gigondas
• Domaine Santa Duc, Gigondas
• Domaine la Ligière, Beaumes de Venise
• Domaine Montirius, Vacqueyras

Best value Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise wines in 2022

• Domaine de Piéblanc, Les Terres, Gigondas 2022
• Château Bois d’Arlène, Re.Né.Sens, Vacqueyras Rouge 2022
• Domaine la Ligière, Les Garennes, Beaumes de Venise Rouge 2022
  

Matt Walls’ top-scoring Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise 2022 wines:

The wines below all scored 92 points or above, and are listed in order of Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Beaumes de Venise, white then red in score order.

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Antoine Daumen of Domaine de la Vieille Julienne was unsure about the season as it progressed. ‘We were cautious to begin with, we had low expectations,’ he says, ‘but the old vines were still very healthy at the end despite the dryness.’ He was pleased with the domaine’s wines in 2022 – they have silky tannins, moderate alcohol and good acidity.

Châteauneuf rode out the challenges of 2022 better than any other appellation this year, and unpleasantly green tannins are relatively rare.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2022 wines

‘The lower the yield, the easier it is for the vine to adapt,’ says Antoine’s father Jean-Paul Daumen. They averaged 22hl/ha (the authorised maximum is 35hl/ha).

It was the same figure at Château de Beaucastel, where César Perrin agrees on the importance of old vines. ‘Our job with global warming is to keep the old vineyards,’ he says, and thinks there are two styles of wine this year: juicy wines from young vines for drinking within five years, and more powerful wines from old vines for drinking after 15. He compares 2022 to 2005 – a good but tannic year that took a long time to come round.

See all 400 Rhône 2022 tasting notes and scores

All the growers I spoke to agreed on the importance of the rain that fell throughout the region on 14 August, which helped to swell the berries with juice and unlock some vines whose ripening had stalled. For many, it saved the vintage.

For certain producers to the far east of the appellation, however, the storm had the opposite effect. Nicolas Brunier of Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe clearly remembers that day. ‘We got a call saying there’s a storm coming,’ he recalls. But here instead of rain it brought hail. ‘Thirty minutes later and there’s nothing left… no more leaves, no more grapes, nothing – a catastrophe.’

It’s the first year in the domaine’s history that no red or white Vieux Télégraphe was made. There is some weather that even old vines can’t withstand.

See the Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Southern Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Northern Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Key Châteauneuf-du-Pape producers in 2022

• Château de Beaucastel
• Château Rayas
• Domaine de Cristia
• Domaine de la Janasse
• Domaine de la Mordorée

Best value Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines in 2022

• Château La Nerthe, Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc 2022
• Château Mont-Thabor, Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge 2022
• Clos du Calvaire, Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge 2022
  

Rhône 2022 score tables:

All top Rhône 2022 score table

Top-scoring southern Rhône 2022

Top-scoring northern Rhône 2022 

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 red wines

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 white wines

Individual appellation analysis on:

Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise | Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres | Lirac & Tavel

Matt Walls’ top-scoring Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2022 wines:

The wines below all scored 95 points or above, and are listed white then red in score order.

Related articles

• Walls: 26 value Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines to try
• Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2019 & 2009: panel tasting results
• Expert’s Choice: White Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Southern Rhône 2022 overall vintage rating: 4/5

Extreme weather conditions produced reds that range from light and juicy to dense and powerful. Blockages in ripening caused by heat and drought made for moderate alcohol levels, but sometimes tough tannins. Whites can lack freshness. Some excellent, ageworthy Châteauneuf-du-Papes; also good in Rasteau.

‘Hot, dry vintages tend to favour red wines and 2022 is no exception. In general the style is fairly concentrated and fruity, if not profound’

Budbreak was a little later than an average year in the southern Rhône, yet harvest was early, so the growing season was contracted due to the extraordinary heat and drought.

Flowering went well, and it was the earliest veraison (when grapes turn from green to red) ever reported.

Scroll down for Matt Walls’ top-scoring southern Rhône 2022 wines

The extreme weather conditions were both a blessing and a curse. Berries were particularly small this year due to the lack of water, meaning a large proportion of skins compared to juice, making for some very tannic wines. This isn’t problematic if the tannins are ripe, but where the hydric stress was more severe, some wines lack depth or taste green and bitter. The hot weather also contributed to low levels of acidity.

One welcome effect of the stop-start ripening, however, was to curb alcohol levels, which are pleasantly low this year. The dry weather at harvest, which started in mid-August for the whites, meant there was no disease pressure in the vineyards and producers could wait for the right moment to pick.

See all 400 Rhône 2022 tasting notes and scores

Hot, dry vintages tend to favour red wines and 2022 is no exception. Grenache fared well, particularly old vines grown on water-retaining clay, whose roots had better access to water reserves. Mourvèdre is very dense and tannic this year, providing resonance and ageing potential. Syrah struggled in the heat.

The whites can lack elegance and freshness, but certain producers with old vines in the best terroirs made some very impressive wines, in a broad, generous, Provençal style. It was often the Clairette-based blends that stood out for their freshness over the richer Roussanne.

Rhône 2022 full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Northern Rhône 2022: full report and top-scoring wines

Individual appellation analysis:

Châteauneuf-du-Pape | Gigondas, Vacqueyras & Beaumes de Venise | Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres | Lirac & Tavel

Because some vines suffered blockages and others didn’t, it’s hard to summarise the style of the 2022s in the southern Rhône, but in general it’s fairly concentrated and fruity, if not profound.

Châteauneuf performed the best, while the more brutally tannic, overripe or overly alcoholic wines were found elsewhere. It’s a better vintage than I expected, and there are many good wines to buy, some of which will age well. There are also plenty of wines to swerve.

Southern Rhône 2022 red wine of the vintage

Domaine de Cristia, Chapelle Saint Théodoric La Guigasse, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Southern Rhône 2022 white wine of the vintage

Domaine de la Solitude, Vin de la Solitude, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Rhône 2022 score tables:

All top Rhône 2022 score table

Top-scoring southern Rhône 2022

Top-scoring northern Rhône 2022 

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 red wines

Top-scoring Rhône 2022 white wines

Top 10 southern Rhône producers in 2022

• Château de Beaucastel
• Château de St Cosme
• Château Rayas
• Clos des Papes
• Domaine de Beaurenard
• Domaine de Cristia
• Domaine de la Janasse
• Domaine de la Mordorée
• Domaine de la Vieille Julienne
• Le Clos du Caillou

Top-scoring southern Rhône 2022 wines:

A selection of 30 southern Rhône wines which scored 95 points or above, listed white then red in score order.

Related articles

• Rhône 2022 en primeur diary: The south
• Get to know Southern Rhône: Good, better, best
• Southern Rhône white wines: how do they compare?

After tasting more than 1,200 wines for his Rhône 2022 en primeur report, Matt Walls has given his full verdict on the new vintage.

Here we present a quick and easy way to see tasting notes and scores for the 65 southern Rhône wines that scored 94 points and above.

Wines are listed by score then style.

See also

Rhône 2022 En Primeur: full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Other score tables:

All Rhône 2022 winesscore table

Northern Rhône 2022 score table

Top Rhône 2022 whites score table

Top Rhône 2022 reds score table

If you’re looking for punchy, muscular Grenache, look no further than Rasteau. It’s a wild terroir with an abiding heat haze that only rarely struggles to ripen its crop.

A series of scorching vintages in the southern Rhône however have occasionally pushed some wines from handsomely well-built to something you’d see on the cover of Iron Man magazine.

That’s no bad thing if you’re looking for wines that are shredded, jacked or swole. But if you’re looking for balanced, drinkable bottles that are versatile with food – not so much.

Thankfully the 2020 vintage manages to find a sweet spot between ripeness and freshness, intensity and approachability – making it one of the most appealing vintages here in recent times.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 38 Rasteau 2020 wines

Growing season

After a wet winter, the 2020 growing season got off to a very early start. Spring was mild with regular showers, so growers had to be reactive. Aside from that, ‘2020 was a fairly easy year,’ says Vasco Perdigao of Domaine Chamfort, ‘even if “easy” years don’t really exist!’

The summer was very hot with the occasional rain shower, but cool nights helped to give the vines some respite. Madeline Ferran of Domaine des Escaravailles remembers ‘an ideal vintage, as much in the vineyard as the cellar.’

‘Despite a complicated year due to Covid, nature spoiled us,’ she says. ‘In 2020, the wines made themselves, the picking programme was very smooth with no rain, which is very rare for us. We finished harvesting with the autumn equinox storms of 24 September.’

Isabelle Roux of Domaine Notre Dame des Pallières says that a light touch in the cellar was the key to success, ‘with light extractions in order to preserve this fruit, this freshness and this finesse which brings us so much happiness when tasting them today,’ she says.

Read about Rasteau’s renaissance here

The style of the wines

The style of 2020 Rasteau is very different to the vintages either side. The 2019 vintage will be remembered for its record-breaking temperatures, and the style of the wines is one of density and chiselled tannins.

The 2021 vintage, on the other hand, was at the other end of the scale – a fragile, late-maturing crop due to devastating April frosts and a cool spring. The wines are unusually lean in 2021, often lacking Rasteau’s characteristic sweet ripeness and generosity of fruit, and frequently showing a mean green streak.

The style of the 2020s however sits comfortably between these two extremes. Frédéric Coulon of Domaine de Beaurenard says that ‘2020 is a beautiful vintage that we like a lot in the family, because it has good ripeness, good balance with sufficient acidity, fine tannins, good length and a beautiful aromatic expression.’

After tasting over 40 wines from the 2020 vintage, I can’t help but agree. I would add that 2020 Rasteau is also particularly well balanced in terms of its alcohol levels, which were lower than in 2019 and 2018.

Matt Walls’ Rasteau en primeur reports: 2021 | 2020 | 2019

Ageing potential

The 2020s are delicious already, and all but some of the more tannic wines can be opened straight away. Sometimes this can denote a less ageworthy vintage, but thanks to the balance, freshness and energy of the 2020s, I believe they will have a long life too.

Frédéric Roméro of Domaine la Soumade predicts his 2020s will last 8-15 years, particularly for his old vine cuvées. I’m sure he’s right, and I suspect some wines might last even longer.

The 2019s will benefit from a few more years in bottle due to their robust tannic frames, and if anything will live even longer than the 2020s. But in terms of sheer drinkability and charm, the 2020 vintage is superior.

Quality and value

Five of the wines can be found at retail in the UK for under £20 per bottle, and only a few break the £30 mark. For authentic wines of place, most of which have some level of sustainability certification, this feels like very good value indeed.

Notable good value wines include Domaine des Escaravailles’ La Ponce, Domaine M Boutin’s MB, Domaine Chamfort’s La Planne, Domaine Notre Dame des Pallières’ Les Ribes and Domaine de la Soumade’s classic Rasteau cuvée.

Rasteau tends to sit somewhat in the shadow of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and Vacqueyras, but in vintages like 2020 it shows why it was promoted to appellation status. If you’re not yet familiar with the appellation, this is the vintage to put that right.

38 Rasteau 2020 wines:

Related articles

• Walls: Côte-Rôtie 2019 in bottle
• Behind Rasteau’s renaissance plus 10 ‘new look’ bottles to seek out
• Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2020: report and top-scoring wines
• Rasteau, Cairanne & Vinsobres 2019: Report and top scoring wines

It’s 11.00am on a July day and it’s already hot in Gigondas. The cicadas are trilling in the plane trees that shade the village square. A busy day is looming for Alexandre Fréguin but he remains unfazed, looking relaxed in a smart shirt and sandals. Underneath the calm exterior however there’s a single-minded determination that would put the Terminator to shame. At just 34, he’s achieved more than most sommeliers manage in a lifetime.

Fréguin oversees the drinks program across the network of restaurants and bars in Gigondas that belong to the Perrin family, owners of Château de Beaucastel and Domaine du Clos des Tourelles. It will come as no surprise that they take wine very seriously here. The main wine list, which is shared across the sites, features 3,500 different wines, mostly from the Rhône.

From law to wine

Fréguin grew up in Aix-en-Provence and was initially destined for a very different career. ‘All my family went to law university; I had no choice whatsoever. My dad said, “you’re going to be a lawyer.” And that was that!’ After school, he dutifully enrolled.

‘My connection with wine happened late one night in a nightclub,’ Fréguin explains. He made friends with someone whose mother owned a small wine estate making rosé in Aix. The following morning, they met up to visit the estate and spend a day helping out around the winery.

It turned into a hobby; cleaning tanks, delivering wines, attending wine fairs…Alex was smitten. ‘I’m serving wine to people, I’m having wine for lunch, a little apéritif at in the evening – it’s the good life!’ Studying law began to look less appealing.

‘After two years of university, I went to see my dad and said “I want to work in the wine industry.” He said “fine, do it, but I’m not talking to you anymore.” We didn’t talk to each other for more than two years, not even at Christmas.’

If he was going to get back in his father’s good books, he was going to have to prove himself.

First steps on the floor

With little work experience, no qualifications and no income, Fréguin found reality starting to bite. He got a job at a neighbourhood bistro, where it quickly became clear that he’d lied on his CV, as he had no idea what he was doing. But he worked hard, and they got on well. Soon he felt like part of the family.

The next step was to enrol at culinary school. He excelled, and managed to secure work experience at a restaurant with a Michelin star. He abandoned his studies to concentrate on work, and by the age of 24 he was offered the role of head sommelier at one-star Michelin Les Loges, in the Cour des Loges hotel in Lyon.

Soon after he started there, the phone rang. ‘I remember exactly where I was,’ says Fréguin. ‘I hear you’re doing well,’ said his father, on the other end. They now have a warm relationship, and share a mutual passion for wine.

See Matt Walls’ southern Rhône 2021 full report

To England

‘I wanted to challenge myself, to go to the next level – to a two-star Michelin restaurant. To push my boundaries, to go abroad,’ says Fréguin. He successfully applied for a sommelier position at L’Enclume in the Lake District in the north of England.

‘When I first opened the wine list at L’Enclume, I realised I knew nothing. The list had wines from all over the world. I realised in France we have very good sommeliers, but these guys [in the UK] are way above! That’s what I loved about being in the UK, the diversity.’

The head chef was Mark Birchall. ‘At the time I thought he was horrible! Rough, always shouting,’ says Fréguin. ‘But he had a golden touch… it was impressive how sharp he was.’ Birchall was planning on opening his own restaurant, and told Fréguin he wanted him on board.

They opened Moor Hall in Ormskirk, Lancashire, in 2017. Within 18 months, it had been awarded two Michelin stars and numerous other accolades.

Competition time

The year Moor Hall opened was the same year Fréguin first entered the UK Sommelier of the Year competition. He’d never entered a competition of this nature before, so he was surprised to do so well. ‘I reached the semi-finals, but when I saw the other competitors, I freaked out! I couldn’t even say hello to them. It was Gerard Basset MW MS, Eric Zwiebel MS, Nicolas Clerc MS… all the people I admired. I wanted to die!’

The sommelier community in the UK is a supportive one, and his fellow competitors soon became friends and mentors. He entered the following year, and this time he claimed the title.

Soon after, he took a position at Chez Bruce in south London where he met his partner Virginie Ramit, with whom he has a son, Noah. They were already considering leaving London when the Covid pandemic struck, which cost them their jobs. Craving space, they decided to move back to their home country.

To Gigondas

On arriving back in France, Fréguin received an email from Charles Perrin who was looking for somebody to manage the drinks operation in Gigondas: the Perrins own the one-star Michelin L’Oustalet, Le Bistrot de L’Oustalet, and a wine bar and shop called Nez.

Originally Fréguin took the head sommelier position at L’Oustalet to see how good a fit they were. Now he supervises all three establishments, running a team of six sommeliers, though buying the wine is his main focus.

The head chef when he joined was Laurent Deconinck. ‘He’s the first chef I’ve met that is so into wine,’ says Fréguin, ‘’we could talk about wine until 3am.’ Deconinck left earlier this year to brew beer in the Alps, and his second in command, Thomas Boirel, has been promoted in his place.

Personal favourites

When it comes to his favourite appellations, ‘there’s no point lying – Gigondas is very exciting,’ says Fréguin. ‘Most domaines are family owned, we understand the importance of lieux-dits, from the 2023 vintage we’ll have white Gigondas, 100% Grenache will be allowed soon…We have altitude, north-facing slopes, a variety of soils – there are so many conditions to make exciting wines in an era of climate change.’

His favourite Gigondas estates include Domaine Santa Duc, Domaine du Gour de Chaulé, Moulin de la Gardette, Domaine Raspail-Ay, Domaine de Piaugier, Domaine des Bosquets and Domaine Cécile Chassagne. Other appellations on his radar are Cairanne and Vinsobres.

He’s also a big fan of southern Rhône whites, particularly Vacqueyras, and highlights Montirius and Domaine le Sang des Cailloux as top examples.

Other producers that he’s currently interested in are Pascal Chalon; St Jean du Barroux and Domaine Aymard in Ventoux; and Domaine Mas Saint Louis, Domaine Pierre André and Domaine du Bienheureux in Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Southern Rhône wines with food: Fréguin’s hints and tips

‘The wines here in the region are very versatile. I always like the sweet tones of Grenache, and with food it’s brilliant,’ says Fréguin.

But his golden rule might come as a surprise. ‘The biggest thing, before anything, is the serving temperature. Southern Rhône reds must be served chilled…When you have Grenache at 15% ABV and you serve it at 20 ̊C, you’re going to kill every dish. I would put temperature above everything.’ He advises serving them closer to 16 ̊C or even lower to begin with.

‘Another thing I would consider very exciting when it comes to wine matching is if there is some whole cluster,’ he says, which he finds marries well with the green, vegetal and herbaceous flavours that are increasingly favoured in many top restaurants.

Serving older vintages

Fréguin shared some invaluable advice for serving fully mature southern Rhône reds. ‘First of all, stand it up the day before to allow for the sediment to settle. Make sure you remove the cork gently; you need to be gentle in everything you do. Treat the wine with a lot of respect.’

‘Don’t decant it,’ he continues. ‘It’s better to open it a few hours in advance and leave it in a cool place; 12 ̊C is perfect. Don’t expose it to any trauma – excess of heat, of oxygen, of movement – any excess with old wine is damaging…We need to treat old wines like elderly people, in a way.’

And when deciding on what to eat with older wines, Fréguin has the following guidance. ‘Earth, earth, earth; everything earthy. Any kind of firm fish, like pike, earthy fish. Nothing too fatty – fat kills old wines.’ Fréguin suggests serving raw meat instead of cooked meat, which is better with young wines.

‘Uncomplicated dishes – just the meat, just the fish. Anything overly complex with acidity, sweetness, sourness – that will destroy [the old wines]. They need a peaceful dish. Nothing overwhelming.’ He also suggests truffle and chestnut as good partners.

Next steps

Fréguin’s next step is to make his own wine. He has bought some fruit – mostly Mourvèdre – from Domaine Chaume-Arnaud in Vinsobres, and he bottled his first vintage last week.

But this is just a side project; for now, Fréguin is happy in his cellar of 30,000 bottles deep in the bowels of Gigondas, overseeing one of the best Rhône wine lists in the world. His father need never have worried.

Alexandre Fréguin is a judge for the Decanter World Wine Awards

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In November 2022, French broadcaster RTL published an article with the following alarming headline: ‘Red wine consumption has dropped by 32% in France over the past 10 years.’ Soon after, winemakers would be referring to it as la crise (the crisis).

The report offered multiple explanations: a big drop in consumption among young people; wine becoming associated more with festivities than everyday meals; people eating less red meat; the increase in single-parent households where people drink less frequently; and the discouraging slogans of public health policies.

Whatever the reasons, for Rhône Valley winemakers it’s a disturbing trend.

At a recent press conference, regional wine association Inter Rhône announced it would be putting considerable resources behind the area’s white wines, with an aim to double production by 2031. It’s a laudable aim, given that it’s primarily red wine in decline, with global demand for whites still relatively steady.

Scroll down for Matt Walls’ notes and scores for eight Domaine A Berthet-Rayne wines

In recent years in the southern Rhône there’s been a virtuous circle of increased demand for white wines leading to improved quality, which increases demand. When I visit wineries, I hear the same story repeatedly: all their whites are sold out. So government bodies seeking to cultivate production can only be a good thing for wine lovers.

One producer that has long been leading the way with its whites is Domaine A Berthet-Rayne in Cairanne (not to be confused with Domaine Berthet-Rayne in Châteauneuf-du-Pape).

Cairanne is the source of some of the southern Rhône’s finest whites. Compared to Vacqueyras and Châteauneuf, it benefits from higher-altitude vineyards which help bring freshness. Soils are different too; Cairanne is more about clay limestone than stones or sand. The result is wines that offer both generosity and tension.

The Berthet-Rayne family’s winemaking roots go back to 1880, and current owner André Berthet-Rayne is the fourth generation. His daughter Alexandra joined him in 2017, her husband Axel in 2019.

André has 40 seasons under his belt. He began farming organically in 2000, when he was part of an informal group of winemakers including Domaine la Cabotte and Domaine Oratoire St Martin. They were interested in the effects of the moon and the cosmos on their vines too; Berthet-Rayne will soon be joining them in biodynamic certification.

A hefty 94% of Cairanne’s production is red, and like all of its winemakers, André and family produce mostly red wines, which are often excellent. But what marks out this estate is the consistent quality of their whites.

It’s a style that Berthet-Rayne has been championing for decades. ‘The market at the time wasn’t really there; it was us making good products that created the demand,’ says Berthet-Rayne. Today 20% of the estate’s vineyards contain white varieties and they intend to plant more.

And the resulting products are indeed good – all the way from the Côtes-du-Rhône Villages blanc M&A, up through the range of white Cairannes. I would reserve my highest praise for the Cairanne blanc Castel Mireio. It’s a blend of 30% Roussanne, 30% Clairette, 10% Grenache Blanc, 10% Marsanne, 10% Viognier and 10% Bourboulenc, partly fermented and aged in old barriques for six months. In a vintage like 2020, it beautifully expresses the bounteousness and finesse that the best southern Rhône whites can achieve.

‘The culture here is one of red wine, but that will change,’ says Berthet-Rayne. It’s true that Rhône winemakers tend to measure themselves more by their reds than anything else. I’m sure Berthet-Rayne is right though – evolution will be gradual but there’s space for much more than 6% white in Cairanne. Especially when they’re as good as this.

Matt Walls tastes and rates eight Domaine A Berthet-Rayne wines:

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How many wines can you name that contain over 20 grape varieties? Here’s one: Château de Montfaucon’s Lirac, Vin de Monsieur le Baron. Having tasted every vintage back to 2007, I can state with certainty that it’s one of Lirac’s greatest red wines.

If this sounds like faint praise, it’s not meant to. Admittedly, Lirac doesn’t currently have the same cachet as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but it’s just on the other side of the Rhône river and has some pockets of exceptional terroir. What’s more, while the greatest Châteauneuf might set you back £400 a bottle, you can find Vin de Monsieur le Baron for closer to £40.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for verticals of Vin de Monsieur le Baron and Vin de Madame la Comtesse

Vin de Monsieur le Baron

The village of Montfaucon lies next to the Rhône river itself, and its château towers over the surrounding houses. It was built in the 11th century, and has been owned by Rodolphe de Pins’ ancestors for generations. He inherited the property and its surrounding vineyards in 1995.

‘Ever since I’ve been making wine in the region, I’ve always been interested in secondary varieties such as Counoise, Aubun and Vaccarèse,’ says de Pins. ‘Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre work well here, but why did the others end up being to some extent abandoned?’

A desire to explore these obscure local grapes was the original motivation for creating a new cuvée, and it was an experiment in co-fermentation that convinced him that this was the right method to bind them together.

Some varieties ripen early, others late, so choosing the right moment to pick all 20 isn’t straightforward. But de Pins found that in co-fermenting the grapes, the resulting wine had a ‘very different profile… a different tannic grain and a particular acidity’.

He includes about 10% of white grapes in the blend ‘for fluidity and aromatics,’ he says, and suggests that using white varieties more widely in the region ‘is perhaps a key to getting drinkability back in our wines.’

Some of his oldest vineyards are co-planted, and he supplements these with the varieties he feels are required to create a balanced blend. The exact parcels aren’t the same every year, but he favours old vines. He’s made the cuvée nearly every year since 2007, except in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018.

In lighter vintages it’s a wine you can enjoy straight away, but it’s worth waiting a decade before opening, and it can last between 20 and 30 years. The aromas and flavours tend towards savoury herbs, flowers and menthol rather than jammy fruits, and the wine has a grand yet precise inner architecture.

Vin de Monsieur le Baron: the blend

The exact blend will change slightly each year. Typically Grenache and Syrah make up less than 30% of the blend, and white varieties make up less than 10%. De Pins hasn’t yet identified every variety in his oldest vineyards, but they include the following.

Red varieties: Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Carignan, Cinsault, Counoise, Vaccarèse, Aubun, Alicante, Terret Noir, Grand Noir de la Calmette, Aramon, Piquepoul Noir.

White and pink varieties: Viognier, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Clairette, Clairette Rose, Bourboulenc, Piquepoul, Piquepoul Gris.

Vin de Madame la Comtesse

The white partner to Vin de Monsieur le Baron came a little later; its first vintage was 2012 and it has been made every year since, except in 2019. It shares almost the same label as Vin de Monsieur le Baron just in a different colour, and is a reproduction of a label from the estate that dates back to 1829. Aside from that, however, ‘it’s the opposite of Monsieur – a single variety and a single vineyard,’ says de Pins.

When he bought the vineyard, it was clear he had something special. The Clairette vines are ancient, gigantic, like petrified sea monsters. Dating them wasn’t easy, but after speaking to the previous owner and carrying out some investigative work at the local notary’s office, it would appear they date back to around 1870. The soils are sand and silt, and it’s likely that some are pre-phylloxera vines.

He picks the grapes as they start to turn golden, between 12.5% and 13.2% potential alcohol, ‘so not too ripe, too fat or lacking freshness,’ says de Pins. The fermentation starts in concrete, then he transfers it to used barriques. It’s bottled without malolactic fermentation to preserve acidity.

He stores the bottles for a year or two before releasing them, as it takes time for the wine’s character to reveal itself. Clairette is aromatically discreet, ‘it’s not a show-off like Viognier or Roussanne,’ he says. At this point, hints of fennel, grapefruit and macadamia start to emerge. After eight years, it takes on further complexity: dried flowers, dried grasses and candied citrus peel.

But it’s really on the palate that this wine shows its class. It has breadth and weight without oiliness or excess fat. The acidity is naturally low, but there’s a textural freshness that brings a sense of balance. It’s a wine that speaks of tension, focus and salinity rather than specific flavours, which makes it intellectual rather than strictly hedonistic.

Over the past couple of years, the demand for Lirac wines has increased; the appellation has seen sales growth in the double digits. But the best Lirac wines still aren’t attracting the prices they deserve. For wine lovers, this represents an opportunity.

Château de Montfaucon shows just how great the wines of Lirac can be in the hands of gifted winemakers. Now’s a good time to see what they can do.

See the full verticals for Vin de Madame la Comtesse and Vin de Monsieur le Baron:

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• Walls’ hidden gems: Domaine d’Abrigeon, Buisson

Julien and Nadia d’Abrigeon stood before me like new parents: proud, exhausted, thrilled. Tasting with them in their rented cellar space, I shared their excitement for their new arrivals. It’s not often you get to taste the first vintage of a new domaine, especially not one so promising.

We’d just returned from visiting their vineyards in the village of Buisson. Not so long ago, this was an undesirable location. Cairanne and Rasteau inhabit the sun-warmed southern face of the Ventabren massif, whereas Buisson is located on its chilly northern slope. But today, cooler spots like this are beginning to come into their own.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for five Domaine d’Abrigeon wines

Julien and Nadia’s journey so far has been circuitous. Nadia is of Russian origin, and Julien was a geologist working for a quarry before he switched careers so he could work closer to plants and nature.

He gained widespread experience, from Bordeaux to New Zealand, but most recently worked for Marie-Thérèse Chappaz in Switzerland’s Valais region from 2014 to 2017; then for Jean-Louis Chave in Hermitage from 2017 to 2020. Their ultimate aim was to establish their own biodynamic estate, but as neither of them had family in wine it wasn’t obvious where to set down roots.

They considered St-Joseph, but were discouraged due to high land prices; they could have afforded half a hectare, but no more. The Loire and the Languedoc were also considered, but it was a love of sunny Provence that guided them to the southern Rhône. But they had doubts.

‘I was really worried about the oxidative side of Grenache, its cooked fruit and prune flavours,’ says Julien. ‘We thought Rasteau was too hot, we wanted north-facing, fresher vineyards.’ Then they heard about the plot for sale in Buisson.

Their bid was successful. In fact, they were the only ones to make an offer. Other winemakers no doubt considered it a worryingly late-ripening vineyard that delivered paltry yields. But Julien and Nadia recognised a fresh terroir and 80-year-old vines. Sometimes it takes outsiders to identify potential.

A herd of deer scattered as we entered their Coquelicot vineyard. They work organically, and are progressing towards biodynamic certification. ‘Step by step,’ says Julien. After taking a second vineyard they now farm 8ha, which is enough.

They make three cuvées. Coquelicot (meaning poppy) and Serre de Case are effectively pure Grenache, whereas Petit Champ is 60% Grenache and 40% Syrah.

The methods are similar for all three. ‘As natural as possible in the vines,’ says Julien, as well as following the lunar calendar and harvesting by hand. The important thing is ‘getting the healthiest grapes possible, and choosing the date of harvest – I taste a lot of grapes.’

In 2021 they made 1,000 bottles of Coquelicot; in 2022 they made 2,500. As they gradually build up a market for their bottled wines, the rest is sold in bulk – mostly to Jean-Louis Chave for his negociant Côtes du Rhône bottling, Mon Coeur.

Julien says Chave taught him that ‘there is no truth; if something works one year, it won’t necessarily work the next. You need to constantly question yourself. He taught me sensitivity and rigour – not always to choose the easiest route.’

Julien and Nadia are now planting Marsanne, Roussanne and Clairette to make a white wine, and Julien is considering diversifying the vineyard with Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Counoise.

Their biggest project will be building their own winery, as they are currently renting space in a small cellar owned by Marcel Richaud. Eventually Julien would like to replace his tractor with a horse, and to plant other crops.

But it’s still early days. ‘We’re right at the beginning of our story,’ says Julien. After all, all great domaines had a first vintage. I look forward to seeing what Domaine d’Abrigeon will achieve.

Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for five Domaine d’Abrigeon wines:

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La Table de Sorgues

Husband and wife team Stéphane and Stéphanie Riss invite you for an elegant and refined dining experience at their restaurant La Table de Sorgues. Located in the small town of Sorgues, the menu features classic French dishes made with locally sourced ingredients. Enjoy a traditional and contemporary menu dining indoors or outdoors, surrounded by a delightful garden.

L’Oustalet

L’Oustalet is a hotel and restaurant located in the charming wine making village of Gigondas. This one Michelin star restaurant is in a perfect location offering a beautiful terrace with stunning views of the surrounding vineyards. Carefully selected local ingredients are put together to create traditional Provençal dishes accompanied with an extensive wine list. With Gigondas renowned for its outstanding wines, you’ll be sure to find local delights included in the menu.

Les Florets

Another stunning hotel and restaurant you’ll find in Gigondas is Les Florets. From its hilltop location you can excite your palate with traditional French cuisine, while having a front row seat to view the beautiful Dentelles de Montmirail mountains and the surrounding vineyards and countryside. Expect top quality wines of Gigondas from an extensive wine list, produced in house as well as wines of Côtes du Rhône and all other French wine making regions. 

La Mirande

Located in the heart of Avignon, La Mirande prides itself on not only being awarded a one Michelin star, but also the Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy. It’s menu is dictated by the seasons and changes regularly based on the availability of local ingredients, which allows for much creativity in the kitchen to produce bespoke dishes in keeping with the authentic flavours of Provence. A Sophisticated and refined dining experience.

La Vieille Fontaine

Gourmet restaurant La Vieille Fontaine, located within the Hotel d’Europe in Avignon, offers a dining experiences full of elegance. Overlooking a courtyard and the fountain of which it takes its name, diners can bask in the charming romantic atmosphere while indulging in the finest southern Rhône cuisine. The one Michelin star restaurant, which features classic French décor and contemporary touches, offers expertly prepared dishes inspired by chef Pascal Auger’s own experiences, beautifully presented, with an emphasis on traditional techniques and flavours.

Decanter’s Rhône correspondent Matt Wall’s Top Choices

‘In Avignon La Fourchette is comfortable but elegant, while Le 46 is more relaxed, with an extensive list of Rhône wines. Maison Ripert is a reliable brasserie in the pedestrianised quarter, and Avenio is a less traditional, more contemporary alternative.’

These are just a few of the many great restaurants in southern Rhône.

Why not join Walls on a tour of the Rhône valley where he will show you some of the finest local cuisine at Michelin-starred establishments.

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In the same way that a private domaine can support a family, a co-operative winery can support an entire village. So when the Cave de Cairanne was effectively declared bankrupt in 2014, a whole community of growers was left hanging from a thread.

‘Closing a co-op is like closing a church. It supports businesses, families, generations,’ says Denis Crespo. He’s an unlikely saviour, as his roots are in natural winemaking. But he provided the necessary electric shock to get the co-op’s heart pumping again. Today, it’s a model of large-scale, no-added-sulphite winemaking. But its recovery was far from guaranteed.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for five Cave de Cairanne wines

From hero to zero

The Cave de Cairanne (also known as Camille Cayran) was founded in 1929, and rapidly established a reputation for quality. ‘In the 1980s and 1990s it was the best cave co-operative in the Rhône,’ says Crespo, partly thanks to the excellence of the winemaker at that time, Raymond Coulourat.

‘It had prestige at the time,’ says Crespo. So when he heard that the Cave de Cairanne had collapsed in 2014, ‘I said it’s not possible – how could this happen?’

The reason for its downfall, he discovered, was that the co-op was selling 90% of its wine to supermarkets. ‘When you dip a toe in the water, it’s not a problem,’ says Crespo. But having all of your eggs in one supermarket basket can be risky. ‘The competition is fierce – there is always someone who can do it cheaper than you.’

With 48 employees to support, the management made every sale they could – even if this meant selling at a loss. In February 2014, it could no longer pay its bills, and was put under judicial review with debts of €7.8m (£6.8m).

In good years gone by, the co-op comprised 200 growers who worked 2,000ha of vines. By 2014, only 50 growers remained, farming just 300ha. ‘We got this close to death,’ says Crespo, pinching a finger and thumb together with a millimetre to spare.

An unlikely saviour

Denis Crespo is 50 years old, but with a full head of hair, gold earrings and a mischievous twinkle in his eye, he appears younger. He grew up in Pessac in Bordeaux, where he studied winemaking for six years, but his winemaking roots are more paysan than bourgeois.

‘I got bored quickly,’ he says, ‘it’s very safe, very traditional, nobody wants change.’ On visiting Châteauneuf-du-Pape in 1994, he realised immediately that the southern Rhône was where he belonged.

He took a winemaking position at Domaine Rouge Garance in Saint-Hilaire-d’Ozilhan, just west of Avignon, where he remained for 13 years. ‘It was totally different from Bordeaux, totally free.’ He developed his style in collaboration with other natural and biodynamic producers such as Domaine Richaud, Domaine Oratoire St Martin and Domaine La Bouïssière.

In 2010 he sought a bigger challenge, so left Domaine Rouge Garance to join the cooperative Coteaux de Fournès (which has now become Les Vignerons de Remoulins Fournès). ‘I had a very bad impression of co-ops at the time – industrial methods, machine picking, lots of chemicals.’ He wanted to see if he could steer them in a more artisanal direction.

It was here that he met Samuel Montgermont of the négociant Les Grandes Serres. On hearing about the Cave de Cairanne’s desperate situation, Montgermont thought Crespo might be the man to help turn their fortunes around, and he persuaded him to meet with the co-op’s management team in June 2015.

Life support

When Crespo arrived at the Cave de Cairanne, he tasted through the range. ‘Of the 21 cuvées I tasted, I would have kept maybe one. I was traumatised. 90% of the wines they made were oaked, polished and tired.’

The supermarkets insisted on wines being made to a specific recipe, like cola. ‘The main problem is that [members] weren’t proud of their wines,’ he says.

He put together a plan to rescue the co-op. ‘Only one thing will work,’ he told them, ‘quality.’ He overhauled the range, and by merging with another local co-op in 2020, he managed to increase the holdings of organically grown vines, which became a flagship cuvée.

Another major change was in the winemaking. Crespo believes that ‘there are lots of microorganisms and yeasts that bring aromatic complexity’ during fermentation, but these are inhibited by adding sulphites. Now all the wines are made without sulphite additions.

Some are even bottled without sulphites. Due to the risks involved, such as oxidation and microbial spoilage, making wine this way on a large scale is rare, but this co-op seems to have perfected it. The Cairanne Sans Soufre Ajouté cuvée is consistently excellent, and retails at just £13.99 in the UK.

A return to health

Today the co-op has 138 members farming 1,200ha of vines, and is functioning healthily once again. ‘I have trouble hiding my joy,’ says Crespo with a beaming smile, ‘but people said it wasn’t possible.’

When he arrived, exports were almost zero; now they’re hitting 30%. His next target is increasing organic farming among his members. Currently at 20%, he aims to increase this to 50% over the next five to six years.

Crespo says that the key to success was enthusing his members, and giving them a sense of belonging and ownership. ‘In a cave co-operative, members are just growers, not vignerons… Now they know which parcels of theirs go into which cuvées. That’s what makes us different.’

He’s restored his members’ self-esteem, and tasting today’s wines from Cave de Cairanne, they deserve to be proud.

Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for five Cave de Cairanne wines

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