2013 Châteauneuf-du-Pape

There was no Vieilles Vignes bottled here in 2014 or 2013 because of the reduced yields, a strict selection and the decision to sell off a lot of fruit. The decision was made to "try to make the very best classique bottling," according to Sophie Armenier. She understands and appreciates the attention that Marcoux garners for the V.V., which, when it's made, is among a handful of the very best and most sought-after wines of the Rhône Valley. But "it's the classique that holds up the estate's reputation to the most people," she told me. "It doesn't make sense to make just a little bit of a great, almost fantasy wine from a small crop when the fruit could be used to build up the quality of the wine that the greatest number of people are going to see," she added.

The short Grenache crop hit this domain especially hard in 2013, Sophie Armenier told me, pointing out that since their Vieilles Vignes bottling is based exclusively on this variety there simply wasn't enough fruit to justify making it. Thus all those grapes, which come from vines that are over a century old (the average vine age across the domain's 18 hectares of plantings is more than 50 years), wound up in the regular 2013 Châteauneuf. All of the fruit in '13 was fully ripe, Armenier told me, and that was because the family decided to wait the harvest out, which she said was essential if you didn't want green and herbal character in the wines. "The start of the growing season was so late and slow that we were behind on ripeness all year, until September." Picking on a regular schedule was out of the question, she said, and fortunately Mother Nature decided to play nice into October.