Camille Cayran “Antique” 2023 from Cairanne in the southern Rhône. NEW vintage.
60% Grenache, 30% Mourvèdre, 10% Shiraz. Made from the oldest vineyards of the estate, up to 120-years-old, and matured in traditional oak vats to polish the wine rather than to mark it with wood. This is Cairanne’s answer to Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
This 2023 “Antique” has only recently been bottled and will benefit greatly from the time it takes the wine to be shipped from France to Australia because at the moment, when you first open the bottle, it just screams fruit. I got a sample bottle air freighted to me and opened it on Friday evening when it looked shockingly fruit-driven, and so I was pleasantly surprised when I went back to the still mostly full bottle the following night and found that it had opened up into glorious layers of bright cherry fruit from the Grenache, spice, subtle oak, leather, and smoked meat and earthy/rocky notes from the Mourvèdre. The fruit is still very powerful and it’s the roaring engine that will see this wine through a long life if cellared, while the palate is very smooth, finely structured with juiciness and a twist of tannin at the end for those who prefer to approach it early. Drink now or keep, this is a very pleasantly hedonistic southern Rhône red.
15% ABV.
Drink now to 2035++
