Perfection from Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Plus Old-Vine Barossa: Weekly Tasting Report

Tasting Manager Kevin Davy and Senior Editor Stuart Pigott just spent a hectic week in the Southern Rhone tasting Chateauneuf-du-Pape, where their first impression of the 2023 vintage is that although many wines are excellent and a few are spectacular, it is not a homogeneously excellent vintage like 2020 was.

None was more spectacular than the perfect-scoring Château de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape Hommage à Jacques Perrin 2023. It gives all the forest berries you could ever want plus cassis and licorice, and its perfect balance makes the finish feel weightless in spite of the titanic concentration. It was closely followed by the Chateau de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2023, which also has a very deep tannin structure, pouring over you in one giant wave.

These were the twin pinnacle of an extremely impressive tasting of the Perrin family’s wines from a handful of appellations in the old section of this legendary producer’s cellar. It showcased the elegance and freshness that all the best 2023 vintage wines share. We’ve been following the wines of this legendary producer for decades, and this could well be the best vintage of modern times.

The new cellar complex at Chateau de Beaucastel, which was a huge hole in the ground when Stuart visited two years ago and a major construction site one year ago, has now been completed and it is one of the most original pieces of modern winery architecture, not only in the Rhone but the whole world.

At the other extreme, there are quite a few Chateauneufs from the 2023 vintage that taste like they are the products of another hot and dry vintage, which 2023 was. They are rich and expansive with ample tannins but taste a bit stereotypical. Perhaps this isn’t surprising given the way conditions swung from heat and drought to rain in the middle of September.

Thankfully, Stuart and Kevin found many excellent wines that will delight fans of France’s oldest legally recognized appellation for wine (1936). One of the greatest was the Domaine Raymond Usseglio Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Imperiale 2023. It has a fantastic refinement and freshness with a slew of floral aromas. In the breathtaking finish, structure and delicacy are precisely matched. It was matured exclusively in concrete tanks, a method increasingly favored in the region.

Also in a fresh and very precise style, the Domaine Santa Duc Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau Ouest 2023 and Domaine Santa Duc Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Saintes Vierges 2023 are twin masterpieces with great vitality and finesse, displaying the best side of the 2023 vintage. Santa Duc has long been a producer of excellent Gigondas wines, but a recent vineyard purchase has upped winemaker Benjamin Gras’s holdings in Chateauneuf to 10 hectares.

Some of the most impressive wines were late releases from the 2022 vintage, like the incredibly subtle and elegant Domaine de la Solitude Châteuneuf-du-Pape Vin de la Solitude 2022. It had a cornucopia of gingerbread, dried cherry, bitter chocolate and wild herbs aromas.

The Domaine Charvin Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2022, which has astonishing aromatic complexity and seamless harmony of richness, is another masterpiece from this vintage. It  reminded Kevin and Stuart of a great grand cru red Burgundy, but with a southerly generosity.

Both these wines are very different to the majority of those from the 2022 vintage, which generally gave very big wines with firm, even chunky tannins.

The development of the dry whites continues at a brisk clip, and we now consider this the most dynamic aspect of the appellation. This time the most astonishing white was produced primarily from the clairette grape, which is renowned for the crispness and moderate alcohol of its wines.

The spectacular Famille Isabel Ferrando Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Spéciale Vieilles Clairettes 2023 is a cuvee of white and pink clairette that was matured two-thirds in Demi-Muid oak casks and one-third in glass globes. It has incredible minerality – something rare for a white Chateuneuf. This limited-production wine will only be marketed in magnums. This wine is just amazing as the same producer’s stunning reds!

Old-Vine Barossa

With some of the oldest-producing vines in the world alongside the modern understanding that such vines create depth of character and complexity when planted on the right site, a quality level is achieved in Australia that can't be replicated with young-vine material. This was evident when Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery tasted with the Torbreck team at their Hillside Vineyard in Lyndoch in the Barossa Valley.

The Torbreck team, led by winemakers Ian Hongell and Scott McDonald, brought out their latest releases, including the Torbreck Shiraz Barossa The Forebear 2020, which is made from shiraz vines planted in the 1850s. This wine displays complex aromas of blackberry compote, roasted coffee beans, iodine, graphite and olive tapenade, leading into a deep, luscious mouthfeel with firmly framed tannins. The winemaking and viticulture team is meticulous in their regenerative approach to their old-vine material, and it shows in their balanced wines, which have consistently improved year after year and showcase great mid-palate weight and fine tannin structure.

Chris Ringland also makes shiraz from ancient vines, discovering the magic of old-vine material while working at Rockford for 15 years. Chris purchased a vineyard planted in 1910, where he creates a uniquely styled shiraz that is aged in barrels for five years before bottling and then cellared for up to three years in bottle before release.

The Chris Ringland Shiraz Barossa Valley Dry Grown Barossa Ranges 2016 is one of his finest releases from a cooler vintage that brings lift and purity. Aromas of blackberries, ferric earth, tobacco leaves, cedar, graphite and roasted coffee beans lead to a seamless palate supported by great depth of fruit, finely grained tannins and a viscous, silky mouthfeel.

One of Ringland’s neighbors is Callum Powell, who started his project, Agricola, in 2018, sourcing fruit from some of the most famed and ancient vines in the valley. The Agricola Shiraz Barossa Valley Ebenezer 2023 is made from the famed Hoffman Dallwitz and Dimchurch old blocks, which were planted in 1880 and 1951. It displays perfumed and densely packed aromas of blackberries, blueberries, red apple skin, tar, spices, and violets, with the palate seamlessly intertwined with dark, spicy fruit, finely grained tannins and a velvety texture.

Classic Napa Cabs from '22

Highlights from California this week include several classic Napa Valley cabernets from the challenging 2022  vintage and a couple of ambitious 2021 chardonnays from the Alexander Valley in Sonoma.

The highest point score went to the ever-reliable and ageworthy Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Private Reserve 2022. This blend from different top vineyard sites in the Treasury Wine Estates portfolio is full-bodied with seamless tannins and integrated acidity, showing mulberries, olive tapenade, blueberry compote, dark chocolate and mahogany.

It's a true Bordeaux-style blend that includes 10 percent cabernet franc, eight percent petit verdot and one percent each of malbec and merlot. It’s drinkable now, yet 40 years of producing this wine have proved that it will be even better in 10 or 20 years.

The Quintessa Napa Valley Rutherford 2022 is the other top scorer this week from California. It’s elegant, intricate, charming and quite fresh – and another good example of the likeable, fruity and not-too-tannic character of the reds from that year.

Despite a fearsome heat dome that formed over Northern California at harvest time in 2022, good vineyard practices and careful selection of the grapes resulted in many, many enjoyable and well -structured reds like the Quintessa.

“The power of having your own estate is what made us successful in ’22 … the power of adaptability in the vines,” said Quintessa winemaker Rebekah Wineburg. “This is an estate wine, so we are thinking about the wine rather than the tons,” meaning her team didn’t have to maximize the quantity of their 2022, so they selected out any grape bunches that weren’t ideal.

She said they have learned to manage or mitigate against severe weather and climate change with a number of moves in the large estate’s vineyard, including row direction, pruning, using shade cloth every year and putting in misters each time they replant portions. Misters put out a fine mist of water that can reduce the temperature in the vines by 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

We don’t expect 2022 in general to be ultimately as ageworthy as 2021 for Napa Valley reds, but it’s offering plenty of good, enjoyable wines that don’t show any cooked or dramatically dehydrated fruit flavors.

Two Sonoma County chardonnays from 2021 deserve a look this week, both from the debut vintage of Prophet & Poet –  a collaboration between vintner Jesse Katz of Aperture Cellars and Chris Jackson of Jackson Family Wines and Stonestreet. The Prophet & Poet Chardonnay Alexander Valley Broken Road Vineyard 2021 comes with bold, tight oak spices and delicious pear flavors on an elegant frame, while its sibling wine, the Chardonnay Alexander Valley Upper Barn Vineyard 2021, comes from a pedigreed, elevated Jackson family site overlooking Alexander Valley.  It tastes creamy, elegant and ethereal, offering intricate layers of baked fruits and pastry spices on a full but silky body.

And during his recent Oregon trip, Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk visited Jim Maresh in Dundee Hills and tasted the 2023 releases from his two distinct brands. Arterberry Maresh, focused on old-vine pinot poir, also produces a small quantity of chardonnay from Maresh Vineyard, first planted in 1970. These own-rooted, dry-farmed vines are among the oldest in the region and grow on old decomposed loamy-volcanic soils, offering what Maresh calls an “unfair advantage” in preserving acidity and extending hang time.

His chardonnay-focused project, Tan Fruit, sources fruit from a broader range of vineyards, including some of Oregon’s oldest chardonnay sites like Eyrie (planted in 1968) and Maresh. Maresh farms about 25 percent of the white wine grapes he uses and purchases the rest, with a focus on heritage clones and old vines. While his Arterberry Maresh reds are 100 percent destemmed, most Tan Fruit whites are made using whole-cluster pressing and a combination of barrel and tank elevage, depending on the vineyard.

New this year are two Tan Fruit cuvees: the Chardonnay Dundee Hills Maresh Vineyard Extra Tan 2023 and Chardonnay Willamette Valley McMinnville Dupee Vineyard Extra Tan 2023. Both wines were made from partially botrytized grapes, marking Maresh’s first experimentation with noble rot producing dry white wines. “I noticed there was a pocket of the vineyard that was developing clean botrytis,” Maresh recalled. “There was no gray rot, no black rot, just strictly berries turning pink. And I said, oh, that’s really cool.” The result is added complexity and texture without compromising purity – two wines that are very clean and pristine.

– Stuart Pigott, Ryan Montgomery, Jim Gordon and Andrii Stetsiuk contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

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