2017 Franck Balthazar Cotes du Rhone 750 ml

Rhône lovers have a great reason to rejoice today, while everyone else—all wine enthusiasts—have a potential new favorite discovery just a “buy” button away. If you’ve ever been to Lyon, the culinary capital of France, you know that Franck Balthazar wines are hoarded by restaurants and local retailers for their incredible complexity and remarkable value.    

But the second a Balthazar red—like this 2017 Franck Balthazar Côtes du Rhône—makes its way across the pond, the price nearly doubles. Well, here’s some good news: This benchmark red of the Rhône—from a producer who Vinuous raves is one of the “most consistently top-notch winemakers not just in Cornas, but in the entire Rhône Valley,”—is up for grabs at Lyon pricing.

In the glass, you’ll find a ruby-red wine showing fabulous savory spices, candied licorice, and black currants laced with anise and cumin seed, leather, and the garrigue that is the instantly recognizable calling card of the best Rhône wines. This is “baby Cornas” at an unheard-of price.

Earlier this spring, Wine & Spirits published their 30th Annual Restaurant Poll and announced that the 2017 Franck Balthazar Côtes du Rhône was selected by wine directors as their number-one choice for a Rhône red to pour generously by the glass, and their number three most popular Rhône blend overall. That’s high praise, indeed, for a wine whose average price on a wine list is $62. 

Past vintages have been snapped up here with lightning speed, and in a year like 2017, fans of French reds (or really, any full-bodied red) should not hesitate. Decanter accurately reported that the ‘17 vintage was “excellent, but there’s simply not enough grapes in several appellations and this could mean price rises for some wines.” Luckily, we got in on the Balthazar the moment it was released. 

When we refer to a wine like this as a “baby Cornas” we mean it calls to mind the great, powerful, elegant reds of the Northern Rhône Cru of Cornas—but costs a fraction of the price. It’s the definition of a case-buy wine, a bottle that will deliver just as much pleasure now as it will in four or five years.

Old-school Côtes-du-Rhône is increasingly difficult to come by. Sure, shelves are groaning under the weight of all the new labels out there, but the good stuff—the wine where you can actually taste the dried garrigue that blows in on the breeze throughout the Rhône Valley, the juice that makes your tongue practically vibrate with the peppercorn and cured bacon that the best of the region have always offered—is a bit of an endangered species. 

But Franck Balthazar is a blast from the past, in the most delicious way possible. And if previous vintages are any indication, Balthazar’s 2017 will be extinct before long.