Rhône 2023 En Primeur: by producer
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Published: 6th March 2025
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Here, discover how the 2023 vintage affected some of our producers and the resulting wines.
Domaine Alain Voge
The dry 2022 to 2023 winter turned to a wet, but thankfully disease-free Spring in Cornas. The summer, as elsewhere, brought extremes of heat interspersed with much-needed rain showers. It was a difficult vintage to manage from a vineyard perspective, the teams battling mildew and carrying out significant sorting of the grapes. However, they’re pleased with the results, pointing to wines of a classic style despite the heat, showing lovely balance, freshness, and drinkability.
Domaine Balthazar
Like many organically-certified producers, Franck found the 2023 mildew pressure extremely challenging. He had to be strict with selection and his yields were extremely low, but quality was superb. One of the most anticipated wines in this offer is always his affordable, brilliantly poised Côtes du Rhône, from organically grown (but not certified) vineyards. We are delighted to have secured, once again, a little bit more of this 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah blend for our customers this year.
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Maison Chapoutier
The 2023 vintage was a strong year for Chapoutier; the wines showing surprising freshness despite the heat – a success attributed in part to their use of biodynamics, which they say makes vines more resilient to extremes of temperatures. In the North particularly, some timely bouts of rain also helped save vines from the worst of hydric stress. In the South, the Mistral ensured freshness and brought a nice, fruity texture to their wines.
Domaine Coursodon
Jérôme describes 2023 as “remarkable for its fruit and finesse” which complements its generous fruit. Jérôme’s new 13.5 hectolitre, concrete, horizontal egg extends the élévage of Le Paradis de St Pierre Rouge for six months. The effect is beautifully rounded, melting tannins. This, Jérôme says is, “my Hermitage – but still an authentic St Joseph”. He is rightly proud of this fine, delicate and delicious wine. His wonderful 95% Marsanne and 5% Roussanne, Le Paradis de St Pierre Blanc returns this year after a long hiatus from our offer. Very little is made so secure a case while you can.
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Domaine Emmanuel Darnaud
Emmanuel says 2023 has produced truly elegant wines. He describes their beautifully balanced alcohol, gorgeous, supple character and perfect poise. Emmanuel’s Au Fil du Temps cuvée misses our offer this year – the 2023 will be an autumn release. It is only made in certain years, from two plots in a single lieu-dit, Les Saviaux, where deeper galet soils and less clay lend minerality for “less volume but more tension”. It’s worth seeking out previous vintages.
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Domaine de la Janasse
The 2023 vintage shows off the quality of the Janasse vineyards and the strength of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape terroir more generally. They navigated the extremes of heat and higher-than-average rainfall with precision, and a little help from the Mistral wind. The crop was healthy and plentiful, yielding 32-35hl/ha on average. What’s more, a disease-free autumn allowed them to leave their grapes on the vines until their ideal maturity, producing wines full of complex flavours, textures and opulence.
Domaine Mathilde & Yves Gangloff
Yves allows his wines one year more of élévage than most before releasing. As such, his Condrieu is 2023 and the reds are 2022 – both dry years with significantly decreased volume. Yves says his last year of “normal” yields was 2019. Fortunately, 2023 saw more volume than the tiny 2021 vintage so we welcome back the fantastic, La Sereine Noire this year. The balance and finesse of these wines is impressive – and with no excessive alcohol, despite the heat (the reds are only 13.5%). Vibrant and refreshing, they sing with the mineral purity that has made Yves so admired, globally, for nearly four decades.
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Mouton Père et Fils
Bryan and Jean-Claude’s vineyards were saved from effects of the August heatwave by much-needed rain in early September. They, bravely, waited 15 days longer than planned to harvest so water could settle in the soil and filter to the grapes. This ensured Mouton’s signature freshness in the wines.
We are delighted that 2023 sees the long-awaited return of the pure and elegant Condrieu Corbery to our offer – vinified and matured in 100% concrete egg. This is the first time we have been able to offer it since 2020, and we highly recommend it.
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Domaine Raymond Usseglio et Fils
The Usseglio team are very happy with 2023 and how it exemplifies the unique qualities of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The wines are classic in style – more what you’d expect from a warm rather than hot vintage. They show great length, structure, and a distinctive saline note – “a marker of the appellation”. Harvest spread over two months – from mid-August when they started their white harvest – until mid-October, when they finished their reds. It was without rot or mildew pressure thanks to the Mistral, so the yield was good, healthy, and meant different varieties could be picked at optimum maturity.
Domaine Rostaing
Pierre Rostaing suffered a 20% reduction in yields in 2023, thanks to spring mildew pressure and the August heatwave. He reacted quickly to the mildew and drones mean he can protect his vineyards five times faster. He destemmed a much larger proportion of Ampodium (25% vs the usual 10%), separated the press and free run juice for fermentation and blended a smaller volume of beautiful wines. Sadly, lower volumes mean we, once again, miss out on the superb La Viallère cuvée. The upside is the 2023 Ampodium has benefited from this beautiful fruit instead. Pierre says there is a “beautiful nobility across all the single vineyards” in 2023 and he’s right to be proud of the wines.
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Stéphane Ogier
This year sees a small change in the timings of Stéphane’s releases and therefore, the wines in this offer. For the first time, we include Stéphane’s charming and very drinkable Côte-du-Rhône Temps est Venu Blanc, to join the red. His Mon Village Côte-Rôtie, Le Passage St Joseph, and L’Âme Soeur Vin de Pays de Seyssuel 2023s will be released in the Autumn – watch out for details then. In their place is an earlier release of his 2020 séléctions parcellaires. These are the components of his Mon Village blend, set aside for single lieu-dit bottlings. This nine-bottle mixed case offers a fascinating tour of the Côte-Rôtie and the 2020 vintage.
Stéphane was very pleased with 2023, particularly in the North. He protected the whites from the heat by picking early (starting around 5th September), strictly sorted grapes in the winery and blocked malolactic fermentation. Conversely he picked the reds late (finishing around 17th October) ensuring phenolic ripeness across bunches followed again by strict sorting. He anticipates it being a great year for the Côte-Rôtie.
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Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe
This vintage sees a welcome return of Vieux Télégraphe. The La Crau vineyard was struck by a tornado in August 2022, destroying the entire crop (though, thankfully, leaving the vines unharmed).
Luckily, 2023 was a fantastic year to return. The heat was balanced by higher-than-average rainfall in winter and spring, and the Mistral kept vines disease free. A long, dry summer meant grapes could be picked over a longer period and at optimum maturity. The result was a classic Châteauneuf-du-Pape, perfectly balancing power and freshness.
At Domaine les Pallières in Gigondas, things weren’t as easy. The weather brought uneven ripening and low yields, so the family were unable to make the old vine, single vineyard “Racines” that we usually include in our offer. Instead, they blended it in with their Terrasse du Diable crop – the only Domaine les Pallières cuvée this year.
Domaine Yves Cuilleron
Along with a selection of his Côte-Rôties, we will offer two of Yves’s top Condrieu cuvées, Vernon and Verlieu. These single vineyard offerings are made like red wines, seeing 18 months ageing in demi-muids (a portion of which is new wood) and lees stirring. They are differentiated only by their vineyard – and notably, the type of granite on which they grow. Complex and age-worthy, Yves cautions to drink them within seven years of vintage or to wait a further five to 10 (at risk of finding them in a closed spell).
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Rhône 2023 En Primeur
We’re delighted to introduce our Rhône 2023 En Primeur offer. The Northern Rhône is home to wines of elegance and structure like Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage. Home to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the Southern Rhône wines are rich and full of powerful fruit flavours.
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