Record-breaking heat in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and environs led to some powerful wines. Ali reports from two weeks of travel and tasting through the region. Gigondas vines pictured above, courtesy of Domaine Santa Duc. See also Rhône 2023 – a guide.
The southern Rhône has largely enjoyed a string of good to excellent vintages in recent years, decades in fact. Yet there nearly always seems to be one or two (or in the case of 2021, several) climatic events that shape the vintage significantly. In 2023 the main narrative is one that you might more likely expect in Provence: heat. In...