2023 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc Vieilles Clairettes

Another sensational white from this brilliant vigneron, the 2023 Châteauneuf Du Pape Cuvée Speciale Vieilles Clairettes offers white peach, orange, pear, crushed stone, and acacia flowers. It's a touch more expansive and sexy compared to the 2024, with medium to full body, a seamless, layered mouthfeel, integrated acidity, and remarkable length. It needs 3-4 years of bottle age and will evolve nicely over the following two decades. Drink 2027-2043. This impeccably run estate in the southern part of the appellation is owned and managed by Isabel Ferrando, who learned winemaking in Gigondas at Raspail-Ay. Her daughter Guillemette joined the estate in 2023 after traveling the world and working at some of the greatest domaines, and she now works alongside her mother. The estate has also worked with the talented oenologist Baptiste Olivier for over a decade. Having tasted with Ferrando since the early 2000s, it's been interesting to see the gradual evolution in style, with the early wines being exuberant and powerful yet always balanced and elegant. Over the past 10-15 years, you can see a clear stylistic shift, with the wines becoming increasingly refined and Burgundian in their purity and elegance. In the cellar, there’s a movement toward more stem inclusion and changes in élevage as well. Starting in 2020, she moved away from the special cuvée model (formerly Domaine de Saint Préfert), focusing on a single classic Châteauneuf-du-Pape (65% Grenache, 20% Cinsault, 10% Mourvèdre, 5% Syrah with partial whole cluster), although she continues to make the Colombis (100% Grenache from three plots), the F601 (100% Cinsault from 1928 vines aged in amphora), and the Cuvée Spéciale Vieilles Clairettes white. These are some of the most refined, elegant, and complex wines in the appellation today, showing a level of purity and finesse that rivals Grand Cru Burgundy. The 2023s and 2024s continue the upward trajectory.