Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Saintes Vierges

This wine offers a robust and satisfying experience, with flavors of juicy plum, raspberry, and blackberry taking center stage. There is a slightly compact nature to the fruit, giving it a dense and concentrated character. Supporting notes of licorice root, apple wood, and dried garrigue add complexity and depth to the profile. While the emphasis is more on power and richness rather than pure fruit expression, the wine is well-structured and solidly built. Exclusively located in the Les Saintes Vierges lieu-dit (named place) to the east of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Soil of rough sand, rich in quartz and mica with shell debris from safres of the Miocene period. The grapes are hand-picked into crates and sorted manually in the vineyard before a second, table sorting in the cellar. A proportion is destemmed, the quantity being determined by the nature of the vintage and the parcel, and the grapes are fed by gravity into the vats to ensure the integrity of the berries. Fermentation takes place in thermo-regulated stainless-steel vats for 20 to 30 days, with two long pumping over sessions daily. Punching down is decided after tasting. Pressed pneumatically. Malolactic fermentation in vat. The wines are clarified by settling over winter in the cellar. Barrel filling occurs in the spring. 18 months in 36-hectoliter oak Stockinger foudres, and 8-hectoliter terracotta amphorae. Unfined and unfiltered at bottling. ABV 14.5%