Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc 2023

This white Châteauneuf-du-Pape comes from Château La Nerthe, one of the oldest estates in the appellation, south of the village, in the southern Rhône Valley. The vines take root in varied soils of clay-limestone, sandy clay and sandstone, scattered with the famous rounded pebbles (galets roulés). A natural spring surrounded by centuries-old woods creates a microclimate on the estate that is warm by day and cool by night, invaluable for white wines.

The harvest is done by hand, with the grapes sorted on a table. The whole bunches are pressed slowly to extract the finest juices. The Roussanne ferments and ages on fine lees in 228- and 600-litre barrels, a third of them new, while the other grape varieties are vinified in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks and then kept on their lees. Blending takes place shortly before bottling.

This wine reveals notes of yellow lemon, citron, fresh almond, honeysuckle, jasmine, Williams pear, mint and vanilla. Beneath a pale golden colour with green glints, the nose is complex, between citrus and flowers. The palate is fresh and sapid, the oak perfectly integrated, and stretches out on a long, lingering, slightly minty finish.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.