Rebellious bargain from 99pt Châteauneuf ace
- 92 pts James Suckling92 pts JS
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NV Stéphane Usseglio Les Amandiers Vin de France Rouge 750 ml
| $30 | per bottle | |
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Châteauneuf Ace Throws Out the Rulebook
The official name is Cahier des Charges.
It basically means “rulebook,” and it’s the bone-dry official document that lays down the laws for each French appellation: approved grapes, minimum alcohol levels, maximum yields—stuff like that. Every AOC has a Cahier des Charges, and they’re all about as exciting as Ambien.
But when a winemaker dares to defy the Cahier des Charges, it can spark some drama—and give birth to a great bargain like Stéphane Usseglio’s superb Les Amandiers Vin de France Rouge.
Richer than a Côtes-du-Rhône, this is a stunning value from a family whose name is synonymous with excellence in Châteauneuf, where they’ve been making top-tier wines for 75 years. This wine is crafted from 100% organically certified estate fruit—mostly Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre—grown chiefly in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and family sites in Lirac and the Côtes-du-Rhône.
If the story ended there, this wine would qualify as a straightforward Côtes-du-Rhône. But winemaker Stéphane Usseglio—the man behind a 99-point Châteauneuf that Wine Advocate called a “candidate for perfection”—went rogue by tapping one of the family’s plots outside the Côtes-du-Rhône and also adding a tiny bit of supple Merlot to the blend. That’s why this bottle bears a vin de France label. And to throw off convention completely, the wine is not vintage-labeled, although 100% of it came from 2019.
The tradition of winemaking in Stéphane Usseglio’s family goes back to his grandfather, Francis, who moved to Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Italy in 1931 and created what is now Domaine Pierre Usseglio. Stéphane’s father, Raymond, founded his own estate in 1964, and Stéphane took charge in 2004.
Forget convention. One of Châteauneuf’s outstanding winemakers did, and the result is this bargain bottle.