Domaine la Roquète (Famille Brunier), Piedlong, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhône, France 2021

Historically, La Crau bottling from the Bruniers has been their flagship wine, their grand cru of sorts. In 2011 they decided to isolate the fruit from a promising vineyard with galet-littered soil from a separate plateau known as Piedlong, which lies at the summit of the appellation. This bottling might be, in essence, their other grand cru.

Piedlong is a vineyard inherited from Daniel and Frédéric Brunier’s grandmother over thirty-five years ago, but the fruit was always blended into other wines. For various reasons, some unexplainable, fruit from Piedlong ripens about two weeks later than on La Crau, which gives it an immediate advantage, as a slow ripening process allows grapes to gain in complexity.

The resulting cuvée, made from 90% Grenache, is therefore a kind of tribute to the grape and its ability to express terroir with purity. This wine drinks like something even more ethereal than you’d expect from a southern Rhône red: it’s mineral and structured but with delicate aromas of rose petal, currants, and réglisse. Piedlong is a new classic.