Focus on Vacqueyras: Latest Vintages and Top Producers

BY NICOLAS GREINACHER | OCTOBER 24, 2024

I was eager to return to Vacqueyras this year to sample the first 2023s and review all the bottled 2022s. Due to the inconsistent 2021s, Vacqueyras didn’t stand out during last year’s visit. The appellation clearly struggled to keep pace with its neighbors, Gigondas and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In contrast, 2022 delivered higher quality and more consistency.

Despite its vast size of 1,477 hectares (3,650 acres) in the Southern Rhône and over 110 individual producers plus four major cooperatives, Vacqueyras remains under the radar for many wine aficionados, who often struggle to name even five of its wineries. For this reason, later in this article, I highlight the current standout producers of this underrated region. Before that, I explore the 2023 growing season and its wines in more detail, followed by a final assessment of the 2022s and a brief market update.

Welcome to Vacqueyras.

The 2023 Growing Season

Following harvest, October 2022 brought warm and dry conditions, with temperatures ranging from 15 to 26°C (59 to 79°F). Rain was scarce until the end of the month when up to 70mm of precipitation fell. November saw a significant rainfall increase, with around 200mm recorded and the first frost arriving on November 25th. By mid-December, some wineries began winter pruning activities. December closed the year with an additional 170mm of rain, bringing the total for the last three months of 2022 to 440mm. This ample rainfall helped replenish soils with water, setting a foundation for the upcoming growth cycle.

Calendar year 2023 started on a cooler note. The second half of January experienced temperatures hovering around 0°C (32°F), with cold conditions persisting into the first half of February, where some vineyards reported lows of minus 2°C (28°F). By the second half of February, early spring signs emerged, as temperatures occasionally exceeded 15°C (59°F), while rainfall remained limited. As the soil warmed, saps began to rise, and the first buds appeared throughout the Vacqueyras vineyards.

A mild March with only 36mm of rainfall saw the first leaves growing by the end of the month, and bud burst for white varieties began at the end of April. By mid-May, flowering was underway, although Mistral winds caused occasional disruptions. Eric Bouletin of Roucas Toumba recalls the “dusty” spring of 2023 due to that scarce rainfall. Between late May and the end of June, 150mm of rain in combination with temperatures above 30°C (86°F) raised fungal disease pressure. "We saw signs of downy mildew directly on the grape clusters, without first affecting the leaves, and some grape clusters dried out due to mildew, especially on the red and white Grenache," Christine Saurel of Domaine Montirius remembers.

The Domaine Montirius team. From left to right: Manon, Justine, Eric and Christine Saurel.

Accentuated by light Mistral winds, July and August were marked by hot and dry weather, with temperatures soaring above 40°C (104°F) in mid-August. While older vines with established root systems were able to resist these arid conditions better, young vines suffered brutally, as Frédéri Férigoule of Le Sang des Cailloux recalls: “All my young vines were scorched, dropping all their leaves. I declassified the grapes of all my young vines and produced a Vin de France to maintain quality levels for my Vacqueyras.”

A small but welcome 15mm dose of rain arrived at the end of August. Many wineries began harvesting white varieties around the 20th, with some starting on red varieties by the end of the month. Daytime temperatures were scorching hot throughout harvest. Several winemakers reported picking only in the morning hours from 7am until around 1pm for white varieties, with a similar pattern for the reds, with the exception of potentially resuming late in the afternoon.

By late September, the Vacqueyras harvest was largely complete. Sorting was imperative in 2023 to separate dried and, in some cases, even burnt berries following the August heatwave from healthy ones. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures during the growing season also resulted in lower YAN (yeast available nitrogen) levels, which is why, in many cases, fermentations took longer and occasionally stopped during winter, only restarting in the spring of 2024 with rising air temperatures. Hence, 2023 was a challenging year for Vacqueyras winemakers, not just throughout the growing season but also in the cellar. Yet, that didn’t prevent the appellations leading producers from crafting high quality wines.

For the reds, 2023 is shaping up to be a good vintage, with upfront and juicy profiles allowing for earlier drinking compared to the more structured and concentrated 2022. Two thousand twenty-three shows higher consistency than in 2021, similar to that of 2022. I also liked many of the 2023 whites, a solar vintage that captures sufficient freshness, largely from early harvesting practices. That said, 2023 Vacqueyras whites will show their best during the first two to four years after release, so don’t lock them up for more than that. There are some exceptions, but they are rare.

Eric Bouletin of Roucas Toumba is one of the most dedicated winemakers in the Southern Rhône.

The 2022s from Bottle

After the bumpy ride in 2021, 2022 sits in between good and very good for the reds of Vacqueyras. The wines are often concentrated, ripe and savory and provide enough structure to age in bottle.  What holds 2022 back from being considered a standout Vacqueyras vintage, on par with exceptional years like 2020 or 2016, is that while the wines are typically well-structured, concentrated, and complex, they often lack that final touch of finesse and ambition. Nonetheless, the finest 2022 Vacqueyras reds can be added to your bucket list. As for the whites, I have to taste more samples for a general assessment, but there are a few gems that reflect the ripeness of the vintage yet neatly capture freshness to maintain balance.

Vacqueyras: Top Producers

To bring readers up to speed with some of the finest names in Vacqueyras, I put together a shortlist of top producers with key descriptors of their wines and styles. Readers can also find more in-depth information on these producers in the respective profiles in this article as well as in last year’s Vacqueyras New Releases: Walking the Underdog.

· Arnoux et Fils – Savory, Concentrated, Traditional

· Château des Tours – Benchmark, Alluring, Age-worthy

· Domaine Montirius – Unoaked, Refreshing, Leafy

· Domaine de la Ligière – Concentrated, Refined, Age-worthy

· Domaine La Garrigue – Spicy, Expressive, Refined

· Domaine Le Clos des Cazaux – Age-worthy, Structured, Classic

· Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux – Elegant, Refreshing, Complex

· Domaine Santa Duc – Polished, Athletic, Elegant

· La Ferme du Mont – Expressive, Multifaceted, Concentrated

· Roucas Toumba – Savory, Concentrated, Classic

Frédéri Férigoule of Le Sang des Cailloux with his wife Marion.

Market Update

Producers I met with in Vacqueyras didn’t shy away from acknowledging tough market conditions. Year-to-date sales have dropped significantly, in some cases by more than 30% compared to the same period last year. This decline is also reflected in bulk prices, with the cost of Vacqueyras plummeting from €550 per 100 hectoliters to €350 over the past year. Ironically, the declassified Vin de France 2023 Vacqueyras from Frédéri Férigoules’ was one of his best-selling wines of summer 2024.

Meanwhile, consumers can buy a 2023 Côtes-du-Rhône for just €1.89 (about $2) per 0.75-liter bottle, (minimum six-bottle purchase) in a leading supermarket chain. There’s a collective hope here that better days will return. For now, the reality is grim: declining wine consumption and rising costs for energy as well as labor show no signs of fading. On top of that, the fact that Grenache in a warm Mediterranean climate results in wines with naturally higher alcohol levels does not help in this situation as many consumers become more and more cautious about drinking these styles. Undoubtedly, it’s a challenging time to be a red wine producer in Vacqueyras and broadly in the Southern Rhône.

I tasted all the wines from this report in Vacqueyras during a trip in September 2024.

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