Xavier Vignon

We had heard all about Xavier Vignon. The ingenious enologist’s hands are all over Chateauneuf-du-Pape — an astounding 65% of the appellation’s producers work with Xavier. The client list is star-studded — Marcoux (98 points), La Nerthe (95), and Grand Veneur, among others.

A few years ago, Vignon decided to make wine on his own. Not much wine, just enough to satisfy his curiosity. What if he was to buy small lots of wine from his clients, wines that Vignon had followed from vine to cask (perhaps even accept wine from some in lieu of payment for enology services)? And what if he only chose the best; 90-plus-year-old Grenache, perfectly placed sand-soil Syrah? And in the long, drawn out 2007 harvest, what if he purchased as much of the slow-to-ripen old-vine Mourvedre as possible and produced a Chateauneuf that combined the enormous ripeness of the vintage, with the wonderful acid balance and aromatic complexity provided by the Mourvedre?

Then Robert Parker’s 2007 Southern Rhone issue came out, and we thought we might have been scooped. Parker (justifiably — 91-94 points!) raved about the 2007 Vacqueyras and Gigondas (more on these later), but there was no mention of the Chateauneuf. Oof, we dodged a bullet. One Parker “94″ and this stuff would be gone in a flash. So we picked up the phone and called Xavier directly. “Stop holding out on us, where’s the 2007 Chateauneuf?” Xavier laughed. “Okay, okay. I hadn’t finished the assemblage in time for the Wine Advocate piece. I’ll send you a bottle.”

We popped Vignon’s hugely concentrated, dense 2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape on a Monday. We spent three days with the wine and finished it on Thursday! The wine was just hitting its stride.

We’ve talked a lot about the unbelievable richness of the 2007 vintage. We’ve never seen such a range of opulence over so many appellations. But sometimes, these wines are almost too lush, too good. The biggest problem with tremendous ripeness is weak acidity; much of the Syrah came in with very high pHs (low acidity), frequently approaching 4.0. The Grenache has such incredible concentration that you want to drink it with a straw, but, depending on the age of the vines and the mineral content of the soil, it too can be somewhat soft. Mourvedre, however, is late to mature and comes in almost three weeks after the Syrah! The pH of the best old-vine Mourvedre in 2007? Just 3.3-3.5 — injecting vibrancy, spice, and aromatic lift into the richest wines in memory.

Xavier Vignon’s 2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape is comprised of 90+ year-old Grenache, sand-soil Syrah, and 30% (!) of extremely rare 75-year-old Mourvedre — the wine’s secret ingredient.

Tasting Notes from the WineAccess Travel Log

“Deep, deep purple/black color. Somewhat closed on Monday with lots of red and purple fruit muscle. By day two, the gorgeous black fruit spiciness of the wine begins to show itself. Pepper, herbes de Provence, with the requisite closed aromas from the Mourvedre. Dense and concentrated on the palate, still a bit unyielding on day two. By Thursday, the wine was hitting its stride, showing all of intense richness of the ancient-vine Grenache, married with excellent vibrancy and lift (the Mourvedre). Drink 2012-2020, but open a bottle now and spend a few days with it…just to know what you’re buying into.”