2014 Phillippe Viret Emergence” Vin de France

“Emergence” comes also from a single parcel, this one with deep clay and lots of limestone pebbles, and it is planted to Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan in descending proportions. It ferments in cement with a long 45-day maceration and spends a staggering five years aging in well-used oak casks with no sulfur added at any point during the fermentation or aging. The 2014 is youthfully dense but beguiling in its tannins and impressive in its caressing energy, and the library 2000 is a dead ringer for a well-aged Châteauneuf-du-Pape from an old master such as Henri Bonneau.