2018 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Pure

Julien and his sister Laetitia are the latest generation of Barrots who have been in the region since the 1400s, to oversee their family’s vineyard holdings, established in 1703. In just over 15 years they have earned their spot among Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s elite producers. Julien Barrot’s first winemaking efforts, in the early 2000s, showcased richness and often flamboyant fruit-driven character. Still, I have never found them overdone in the extreme school fairly common back then. Over the years, Barrot has been steadily moving toward a more elegant, expressive style, even more since they transferred from their old winery. The new facility is a far more spacious, modern (but not too modern), gravity-fed operation on the south side of town, which is tricked out with the same tall, tulip-shaped concrete fermenters made famous by Château Cheval-Blanc in Saint-Émilion. Barrot’s 2018s are excellent renditions of the vintage, if slightly more forward in character than usual.

Julien Barrot is on a quest to dial back the richness of his wines “even if the weather isn’t cooperating much in the last few vintages” as he seeks. Barrot told me he is looking for “more detail and structure, without hard tannins.” Today’s wines here, even the 2017s and 2016s, are a far cry, finesse-wise from the wines that Barrot was making in the early to late 2000s, when he “was trying for maximum power, maximum weight. You know, like so many young winemakers do when they want to make a name for themselves.” While he is pleased with how those wines are aging (and I mostly concur), he says that he does wish that they showed “a more light touch and more fresh, or red fruit” as they increasingly do now.