2017 Xavier Vignon "Cuvée Vieilles Vignes" Côtes-du-Rhône

The 2017 Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Vieilles Vignes is a smoking good Côtes du Rhône and offers full-bodied aromas and flavors of blackberries, black raspberries, cassis, lavender, and flowers. It's rich and concentrated, yet also elegant, weightless, and layered, with notable complexity. (8/2018)

Xavier Vignon was always a scientist at heart and began his studies in pharmacology in Reims in the Champagne region. A chance encounter with an oenologist ignited his passion for wine and set him on a new path where he quickly changed his focus to winemaking. Studying winemaking in Champagne and abroad gave him a different outlook in wine production and he brought that perspective back to Montpellier in southern France where he finished his oenology degree. Accumulating years of wine experience, his career as a consulting winemaker really started in 1996. Focusing on top estates and growers in the Rhone Valley, he has created a catalog of contacts that he calls on to get some of the best fruit (that he helps grow) and makes some of the most exciting wines in the region. The Cuvee Vieilles Vignes as translated is the old-vine cuvee. It is composed of 50% Grenache from nearly 100 year old vines, 40% Mourvedre from 85 year-old vines with the rest Syrah and Cinsault from 45+ year old vines. The vines are from grown on mostly clay and limestone soils with a few parcels grown in the classic galet roules (large rolled stone) vineyards. This is a defining Cotes du Rhone style that has a potpourri of black fruit intermingled with spice and garrigue notes. You'll be hard pressed to find a better value in any category!