Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc V. Vignes

2019
France
Rhône

50% Bourbolenc/50%Clairette. Eric Texier has worked closely for many years with Jean Riché, the owner/farmer of this small plot of organic vines which lie 1 km. from the Rhône River in the lieu-dit of Bois Sénéchaux.  The north-facing site is flat and stony with the classic glacial galets roulés and cool, clay-based soils over limestone mother rock. The Bourbelenc and Clairette average over 50 years old and are bush-trained, creating shade to protect the bunches from the hot sun; Texier stopped using the Grenache Blanc vines years ago, in an effort to keep a better-balanced, terroir-expressive profile. The bunches are harvested by hand and on the early side to preserve freshness. They are direct-pressed and fermented with indigenous yeasts and without sulfur in used oak barrels. The wine does undergo malolactic fermentation and is aged in used barrel with no racking for 16-20 months; it is bottled without fining or filtering or any addition of sulfur. 

 

 

92 points
"The 2019 Châteauneuf du Pape Blanc from Éric Texier is made from its now customary cépages of fifty percent each of clairette and bourblenc. Monsieur Texier barrel-ferments and raises this wine in old Burgundy casks. The 2019 version is deep and complex on the nose, offering 103 up scents of apple, peach, a touch of breadfruit, almond, browned butter, orange peel and a lovely base of white soil tones. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a lovely core of fruit, a wide open personality, good acids and grip and a long, well balanced and classy finish. This is drinking beautifully at four years of age, but certainly has the balance and spine of acidity to continue to evolve beautifully in bottle for many years to come. 2023-2035. 92. "
John Gilman,
View from the Cellar
November 2023

SKU/Code: 
DB8944-19
Product Line: 
Wine
White
Varietal: 
Bourbolenc/Clairette
Farming Type: 
Organic