2022 Chateauneuf du Pape Croix de Bois

Kirsch liqueur, ground pepper, dried flowers, and loamy earth notes all emerge from the 2022 Châteauneuf Du Pape Croix De Bois, another brilliant Grenache from this team that has so much to love. Full-bodied, concentrated, broad, and expansive, it has the sunny style of the vintage while staying flawlessly balanced, concentrated, rich, and powerful. This cuvée comes from the Crois de Bois lieu-dit and saw the same 70% destemming and aging all in concrete as the Barbe Rac release. It, too, will keep for 10-15 years with ease.

In comparison to Barbe Rac, the 2022 Chateauneuf du Pape Croix de Bois, a 100% Grenache Noir planted on galets roulés and red sandstone soils, reveals a tighter, more reserved bouquet of spices, cedarwood and lead pencil. Medium to full-bodied, rich and concentrated, it's ripe and layered with structured tannins and a long, muscular finish. Matured for 15 months in concrete tanks, it is a particularly robust Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

100% Grenache. Vinified and aged for 16 months in concrete tanks. Certified organic and biodynamic. Tank sample. Tasted blind. Smoked-meat and savoury notes on the nose. The palate is sweet and dense, with firm and layered tannins, bacon fat and herbal notes on the rich finish. (AC)