2016 Xavier Vignon Cotes du Rhone 100% 750 ml

Since the release of the 2007 vintage, Xavier Vignon’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape Anonyme has been one of the most highly-rated and consistent performers in the appellation, earning a bevy of 94-97 point reviews from Parker’s Wine Advocate. But if Anonyme is this ingenious enologist’s flagship cuvée, it’s Xavier’s old vine “100%” that’s his most alluring bargain to date.

Muscled, rich, and plush after a cellar slumber, but don’t let a modest $18 price tag fool you. Vignon’s 2016 100% will age elegantly well into the latter years of the decade. Not to be missed.

Read on to learn why Xavier Vignon calls Côtes du Rhône 100% his “Anonyme Jr.”

We first heard of the mystifying work of the secretive enologist of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the summer of 2005. On a balmy summer evening on the square in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, we sat at a café with a number of young vignerons, discussing the recent trifecta of scorching hot growing seasons, and those estates that seemed to shape and tame their ancient vines rather than allowing bunches to shrivel and sugars to climb to unmanageable levels.  

Of the domaines that had really shined from 2003 to 2005, we learned the name of a brilliant young enologist, who preferred to keep his name out of the Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator in deference to his 100-point clients.

It stayed a secret until Issue 203 of Wine Advocate, when the most influential wine critic in history, Robert Parker, broke the story of Xavier Vignon.

Since Parker’s reviews of Xavier Vignon’s staggering 2007s, leading up a long string of 95-96pt reviews of always-chiseled, classically honed Châteauneuf-du-Pape Anonyme, Xavier Vignon’s most coveted cuvée has become one of the most highly rated wines in the history of Wine Access.  

But while at Xavier’s tasting table in Châteauneuf a year ago, the master of ancient-vine blends spoke as much about a special cuvée from 2016 that he called “100%” as he did about the Wine Advocate’s 96-point Anonyme.

As Vignon explained, the secret to the great vintages of Anonyme lies in the way these marvelously age-worthy Châteauneuf-du-Papes “are constructed.” Drawn from ancient-vine parcels in nearly every quadrant of the appellation, the wine is built from the bottom up, beginning with deeply concentrated, but also powerfully structured Grenache and Mourvèdre. Plusher and more aromatic varieties are then layered on top, making for wines that are gorgeous several years after bottling but age gracefully for decades.  

The Côtes du Rhône 100% is constructed with the same methodology, only instead of the old-vine fruit coming from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the base wine is drawn from carefully chosen Grenache and Mourvèdre plots just outside the appellation, while the “layers” are drawn from pristinely ripe and fresh Syrah, Counoise, Cinsault, and Terret from the northern satellite villages of the Southern Rhône, making for a lavishly textured, juicy blend that Xavier and his cellar team call “Anonyme, Jr.”

Glistening purple to the rim. Aromas of black and red fruits, licorice, spice, and high-toned herbes de Provence. Intensely concentrated and weighty on the attack, packed with primary fruit richness that gives way to complex secondary flavors on the mid-palate, including a cornucopia of crushed black fruits, blackberry compote, and sweet spices, finishing with Vignon’s signature Anonyme-like tension and backbone.