2018 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc Pure Clairette

Also terrific, the 2018 Châteauneuf Du Pape Pure Clairette (equal amounts Clairette Rose and Clairette) offers a medium to full-bodied, clean, balanced style that carries terrific notes of citrus blossom, honeyed minerality, and white flowers. Brought up in demi-muids, it has good acidity, terrific purity of fruit, and a great finish. Bottled only in magnum, it’s going to benefit from a year in bottle and keep for 7-8 years. Run today by the young yet obviously talented Stéphane Usseglio, Domaine Raymond Usseglio has gone from strength to strength over the past decade and is undeniably fashioning incredible, world class wines today. They have recently completed work on a new state of the art cellar located on the northern edge of the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and pull from around 45 acres of vines, mostly in the center and northern part of the appellation. They produce a number of cuvées, yet the core is the traditional Châteauneuf-du-Pape, based on 80-90% Grenache and the balance Mourvèdre, the La Parte des Anges, based primarily on Mourvèdre, and the Cuvée Imperiale, based on tank-aged old vine Grenache. They have a Cuvée Girard which is basically a tweaked version of the traditional cuvée and introduced their Les Apotres cuvée in 2015 (which I only tasted from barrel, not bottle) which is an amphora-raised blend of all the permitted varieties. As I wrote last year, the bottom line is that this estate is making beautiful wines and deserves more attention in the market today.