Chateauneuf du Pape Domaine de Villeneuve 2015

Chateauneuf du Pape Villeneuve, Biodynamic Chateauneuf du Pape, 80 year old vines, rich, subtle, complex and powerful. Simply outstanding Chateauneuf du Pape! Villeneuve is not your over-extracted heavy, inky nonsense; when you open the bottle, (generally it is a younger vintage as the production is small and they get drunk up) the wine shows you little initially, it is quite quiet and yet enticing, after a few hours in decanter, it starts to communicate and show its potential power, gently at first and then more aggressively like a grizzly (but an elegant, intellectual grizzly) coming out of hibernation. Villeneuve is simply stunning hedonistic drinking with all the subtleties and complexity you would want from old vine Grenache. Along with that like many of our wines, freshness abounds and so the entire bottle presents no challenge at all in the finishing!

In 1993, Stanislas Wallut and Philipe du Roy de Blicquy bought Domaine de Villeneuve.

They refurbished the estate, built an underground winery and set about converting the 8,4 hectares of vines to biodynamic farming. The estate is made up mostly of old Grenache, growing on galets, which are typical of the region, and help the grapes reach optimum ripeness. After a few years, Philippe had to pull out of the project because of health reasons, and then in 2009, Stan added another 4 hectares of Côtes-du-Rhône, just north of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation. The complexity of Stan’s wines is due to the low yields he obtains by carefully farming but also the fact that his vines are quite old, with plants between 30 and 100 years old. Stanislas runs his domaine without pretension, his cellar and tasting room are simple and straight forward, his approach to his work is according nature's natural rhythms. His wines are far from simple yet they are very easy drinking and always bring you back for more.