Xavier Vignon Ventoux 2016

There’s no cheating going on at Xavier’s Vignon’s winery in Châteauneuf. There’s no need when you have access to hundred year old vines at dizzying elevations all over the Rhone valley. Xavier makes knocked-out wines in every price point, huge Parker scores and really sharp pricing easily makes him one of NW most requested and commented upon producer. His latest release, a juicy, Châteauneuf-styled blend coming from 80-100 year old vines found at some of the highest elevations in the appellation of Ventoux. The 2016 vintage was an almost perfect one in the Rhône Valley, with grapes enjoying a long, even growing season.

The resulting wines are terrific across the board, from the high end Saturday nighters to the Tuesday nighters; this Ventoux is a killer bottle of wine. It’s loaded with black fruit, touched with baking spices, rosemary and thyme. It’s a generous, full bodied wine but mineral and fresh. For the restaurant, it’s the perfect wine by the glass, open bottles last for days, just getting more complex, finer as we go on. It will act the same on your kitchen counter although my bet is that the wine won’t last that long…the fruit is just crazy good.