En primeur

Rhône 2023

A Rhône vintage of seduction and charm

Rhône 2023

Style and profile

Having travelled extensively around the region and tasted wines from around 100 growers, I have found the 2023s to be fruit-forward, juicy, seductive and with immediate charm. Tannins are supple and sleek, alcohols have been kept in check, and you feel balance and energy on the palate. We work with growers who show enormous commitment to their vineyards, successfully navigating and adapting to the new climatic challenges they are faced with, enabling them to produce wines with real freshness in slightly warmer vintages. Some growers compared the vintage to 2011, 2012 and more recently 2018 in style. The 2023s are more restrained than some recent vintages and can be enjoyed early, perhaps while we wait for the 2019s and 2022s to come around. I think the wines have so much to offer and I love how they have less power and concentration than the 2022s, but more overall depth and finesse than the 2021s. They are unashamedly enjoyable.

Order by midday on Monday 17th February

Late arrival wines

Late arrival wines

These wines are due to arrive in summer 2026.

Weather

Every vintage brings its new set of challenges, yet 2023 was an opportunity for growers who were present and proactive in their vineyards to shine, producing delicious and precise wines that you want to drink.

A mild winter was followed by an exceptionally wet spring. May and June proved challenging in terms of mildew pressure; growers such as Pierre Rostaing said they had to be a lot more rigorous in selecting grapes during harvest as a result. With a lot of the big rainstorms falling over bank holidays, often the smaller, family-run estates could react quicker and get in the vineyards to spray. Localised hail in July and August devastated vineyards in Crozes-Hermitage, Saint-Joseph and Cornas. Up until December 2024, Jaboulet were undecided as to whether to release the 2023 Thalabert vintage. They have created a blend, but I have decided not to sell via our en primeur offer. Instead, I will wait and retaste again once it has had some time to flesh out a bit, and for the oak to integrate further.

The arrival of 15th August was a big turning point in how the vintage played out. Up until this point, Château Courac believed this would be one of their best vintages ever. Temperatures soared, and some vineyards suffered. Vincent Avril from Clos des Papes says that thanks to great vineyard sites, regenerative vineyard practices, as well as significant old-vine plots (that have established root systems and are not requiring irrigation), the relatively short heatwave wasn’t particularly problematic.

Although there were a couple of days that hit 42˚C, many growers spoke about how they didn’t ever get the prolonged extremes in temperatures like in 2018, 2019 and 2022, which helped alleviate rising alcohol levels. Better understanding of how to deal with these conditions in the vineyard has its part to play, but ‘perhaps the vines are becoming better adapted to these conditions’, said Louis Barruol from Château de Saint Cosme.

Early September saw temperatures lower significantly, with good diurnal fluctuations between day and nighttime temperatures and timely showers helping the grapes to keep their freshness and balance.

After a year’s hiatus due to significant hail damage in Châteauneuf last year, we are pleased to have Vieux Télégraphe in the line-up in this offer, and 2023 is a fine example from the Brunier family. If I were to pinpoint appellations that really shone this year, I would go to Hermitage, Cornas and Côte-Rôtie as well as Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the south. Across the board they delivered quality and drinkability and for that, they caught my attention.

Pricing

I am happy to let you know that thanks to a favourable exchange rate and the majority of producers maintaining pricing this year, we can keep the prices the same as last year, and in some cases reduce prices.

Passing of the baton

After 38 years at the helm, Marcel Orford-Williams has passed the Rhône buying baton to me. I was lucky enough to have had his insight and knowledge into the region for the full five weeks of my 2023 buying trip. He managed to get us to every visit (mostly on time!) without the need for a GPS or map, and for that I am in complete awe and extremely grateful. Inevitably, buyers’ tastes differ somewhat and slight changes to the range are to be expected in the future, especially with the new generation of winemakers making their way through the ranks. Having said that, I was blown away with just how diverse the wines we work with are, and I am thrilled and privileged to be able to buy for this standout wine region and present to you the best that 2023 has to offer.

A note about alcohol levels: we are including indicative alcohol levels for all the wines in this offer. Please note however that these are intended as a guideline and may differ once the wines are in bottle.

Buyer for Rhône
Fiona Hayes Buyer for Rhône
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