2023 Famille Isabel Ferrando "Saint Prefert" Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Professional Reviews

Notes

Isabel Ferrando arrived in Châteauneuf-du-Pape as an outsider, leaving a career in finance to purchase Domaine St-Préfert in 2002. From her debut 2003 vintage, she began transforming the estate’s winemaking to meet her exacting vision - pursuing elegance and precision from the hot, stony Les Serres lieu-dit. Ferrando championed organic and biodynamic farming, whole-cluster fermentation, and aging in a mix of concrete, amphora, and neutral oak - techniques that soon influenced a new generation of Rhône producers. Her meticulous approach and willingness to experiment helped establish her as one of the region’s leading modern voices, producing some of its most coveted cult wines. In 2020, she rebranded the estate as Famille Isabel Ferrando, marking a new chapter as her daughter Guillemette joined the production team. They began to consolidate the mulitple cuvees and they returned to a single, blended cuvée reflecting the domaine’s full terroir. The estate achieved biodynamic certification in 2022, the same year that vintage earned #10 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2025, confirming Ferrando’s continued ascent. From top to bottom, her wines remain essential benchmarks for Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s evolving identity.