Gregarious in their youth but built to cellar and build complexity too. The focus here remains on fruit and site, not artifice and ego, and the results are wonderfully perfumed, silky and rich wines bound together by sinew and spice. The second part of the equation here is Caroline Charrier's no nonsense approach to winemaking which is led by a blend of tradition and pragmatism. In the winery the approach is unfussy but carefully measured, the old vine grenache is handled with care, whole bunch fermented and then aged in concrete with no oak in sight. It's no surprise that you will find little else in the mix in Font de Courtedune's Chateauneuf bottling. This is grenache nirvana, the silty soils delivering wonderfully perfumed and silky wines. If there was ever a sales pitch for this 'alternative' terroir it would be the resume of Font de Courtedune's neighbours whose wines are arguably the most revered and sought-after in all of the southern Rhone, Chateau Rayas. In Courthezon for example, where Font de Courtedune resides, you will find vineyards encircled by cool coniferous woodlands with vines slithering their roots down into sandy soils peppered with clay and limestone.
I mentioned the sandy soils above and this is the place to start the conversation around these wines. While the press photo for Chateauneuf du Pape is sure to be one of old gnarled vines in rugged vineyards littered with the large round stones know as 'galets' on plateaus like Le Crau, there is far more to the region than this monolithic vision. On this trajectory these wines will soon be limited to allocation only for our customers as well, we all know that timeline and so this is the time to be jumping in and enjoying the bounty. It's a a congruence of improvements in quality, some overdue press, and I think a growing appreciation of Chateauneuf grown in sandy soils where Grenache sings with distinctive beauty. While we have long admired the textural and perfumed wines from Font de Courtdeune, over the last few years it seems their star has risen exponentially internationally, to the point where our allocations are shrinking and demand continues to rise. In following it, the Charriers craft wines with a very specific sense of place – the singular sands of Courthézon.
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