Familie Isabel Ferrando "Beatus Ille" Côtes-du-Rhône 2023

Isabel Ferrando's "Beatus Ille" is brilliant ruby-red and fresh and energetic on the nose, displaying intense wild strawberries and floral scents, with a suggestion of white pepper. The palate is juicy and supple and reveals red and black fruits, from strawberries, raspberries and cherries to redcurrants and blueberries with a refreshingly bitter blood orange nuance. A note of dark chocolate and mentholated freshness punctuates the mid-palate. The tannins are melted and make this wine an immediate pleasure, complex and Mediterranean, with a long, sappy finish that leaves behind a suave lavender note.

Essentially a declassified Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Beatus Ille is mostly Grenache from 70-year-old vines blended with about 15% Cinsault from a parcel named La Lionne in the Sorgues district, just at the southern border of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and another parcel, and a bit of Syrah from Châteauneuf-du-Pape. 100% destemmed and fermented and aged in cement tanks.

Isabel Ferrando’s reputation for outstanding wines has grown every vintage since her first release in 2003. She purchased Domaine Saint-Préfert from the Serre family, who was one of the first to estate-bottle in the appellation in the 1930’s; at that point, the domaine was 13.2 hectares, all in the Les Serres lieux-dit, south of the village of Châteauneuf. Ferrando has always farmed organically, and since in 2019, the vines are being managed following biodynamic methods.