2021 Gerard Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone

Beautiful floral aromatics of raspberries, minty herbs, sappy garrigue, and fresh rose petals all emerge from the 2021 Châteauneuf Du Pape, a bright, medium-bodied, incredibly elegant Châteauneuf du Pape from Laurent. It picks up more white pepper with time in the glass (no doubt from the stems) and has a fresh, focused, almost crunchy style that will benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age and will evolve for well over a decade. This is an elegant, fresher Charvin with lots to love. Unfortunately, production is down more than 40%, so there's not much to go around. Tasted twice with consistent notes.

91 points jebdunnuck.com

Laurent Charvin runs this small family estate located in the north of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The domaine has vineyard holdings of just 8 hectares in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and 13 hectares in Cotes du Rhone.  The average age of the vineyards is over 50 years old with the oldest being nearly 80 years of age. Laurent Charvin describes his vineyard site as being cool for Chateauneuf as their vines are mostly planted on sandy north facing slopes. Certified organic.

Charvin produces finely styled Grenache based wines showing great depth and finesse (approximately 80% Grenache for each wine with small amounts of Vacaresse and Mourvedre as well as small amounts of Carignan and Bourboulenc for the Côtes du Rhône). Winemaking is traditional with no de-stemming and all ageing is done in cement tanks. No wood is used for the elevage of either wine. There are no secrets here, simply old vines, very low yields and minimal winemaking intervention. The Côtes du Rhône is regularly rated as one of the very best from this area and perhaps it is not surprising as the vines for this cuvee border directly on to the appellation for Chateauneuf du Pape in the northern sector where they are located.