White Wine

91/100 Wine Advocate "A 50-50 blend of Marsanne and Roussanne, the 2016 Saint Peray comes off limestone soils. Thirty percent was barrel-fermented in new and second use oak, but there’s little overt toast or vanilla here, just honeyed fruit, pineapple and pear flavours on the medium-bodied mid-palate and citrus and chalk dust on the long finish. Drink it over its first 5 years."

La Ponce is french for Pumice, just so you know. This is one of Gilles Ferran's classic Rasteau wines, as Jancis Robinson says 'more drawing room than rustic'. It's got fantastic purity of fruit and wonderful depth of flavour.

Made from two lieu dits, high up on the slopes overlooking the majestic Rhone. The wine has classic Viognier nose of peach, apricot, toasted spice and honey. Medium-bodied with good fruit and texture and shows a more mineral character than the richer Le Chatillon Condrieu cuvee.

Classic southern Rhone white, made from Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Viognier. Fresh and floral with full, round stone fruit flavours and a lithe lick of minerals. Delicious.

A blend of Clairette 70% and Grenache 30%. 80 year old vines are planted in mixed soils of red sand, clay and round pebbles. Grapes are hand-harvested and vinification takes place in 100% old wooden casks. The wine is matured in large ‘demi-muid’ barrels for 6 months on the lees.

Classic southern Rhone white, made from Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Viognier. Fresh and floral with full, round stone fruit flavours and a lithe lick of minerals. Delicious.

Pretty floral nose with apricot expressing the majority Viognier in the blend. Elegant and soft palate with more apricot fruit.

"Oak evident. More aromatic - almond, white pear, white peach. Versatile. Lovely, rich, vibrant. Soft sweetness on the finish. Fruit, acid, and oak all in balance. Will develop." AA, January 2021

The 2019 Renaissance From Roger Sabon shows distinct aromas of tropical fruit, peach, and ripe pear with a dense, creamy mouthfeel before finishing fresh with echoing flavors of tropical fruit, sweet citrus and a pleasant almond skin finish. This wine is made from the 1 hectare of white varieties that the estate has scattered in their various parcels with sandier and calcareous soils. Each variety is harvested by hand and pressed into a 25HL oak vat for fermentation by indigenous yeasts, after primary fermentation it remains in the same vat until bottling in April after the harvest. Blend: 35% Roussanne, 30% Grenache Blanc, 20% Clairette, 15% Bourboulenc

Serious "baby Chateauneuf Blanc" from the opposing side of the Rhone, 6 miles from Chateauneuf. Creamy, almost waxy, broad, dense, intense, aromatic, spiced. Almond and toast, apricot and lilies. Quite superb food wine with rich creamy sauces, roast birds, mushrooms, fish and chips. Way out of its class, a jewel and bargain from top Chateauneuf grower Sabon. Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Viognier, Clairette. Minimal sulphur, cool co-ferment, unfined, vines up to 40 years old, declassified vineyard.

The vineyards for the ‘Petit Ours’ Blanc are planted around the village of Autichamps in Northern Drôme at an altitude of 420 metres, bringing freshness to the finished wine. The soils here are a mixture of clay, silt and sand above hard limestone mother rock. The vines are farmed organically and biodynamically. A very expressive bouquet of stone fruits and white flowers, which carry through to the palate. This wine has a good intensity of fruit flavours with notes of white peach and pear and a fresh acidity due to the early harvest.

Parker 93/100 "stunningly concentrated... minuscule yields of only ten hectoliters per hectare... aromas of apple blossoms and tangerines... combines richness and lime zest..."

Mega-rare, a glancing flash of greatness, not his £300-a bottle Hermitage Blanc, but what a beauty at the price.