Few white wines can compete with the grandeur of the Rhône’s best bottles. Powerfully lush, with rich texture and stony minerality, they command attention at the table and inspire rapturous obsession among collectors.

But here’s the thing: Just 5% of the Northern Rhône is planted to white grapes, which means Rhône whites are as uncommon as they are fantastic. We rarely get the chance to offer them, so of course we were going to jump at the chance to offer Ferraton’s La Source Blanc again—especially after a three-vintage hiatus and a boatload of five-star customer reviews.

Ferraton has “access to some of the best vineyards in the region,” according to Vinous, “and certainly get the most of them.” They do that through the winemaking of Michel Chapoutier, who, with 40+ 100-point scores to his name, is no less than a deity of Rhône winemaking.

But Ferraton, despite their fantastic terroir, despite the famous winemaker at the helm, remains an insider secret. Vinous commented that the estate “produces outstanding white wines, but they're still an under-the-radar winery." That translates into prices that are a far cry from Chapoutier’s $400 Hermitage Blanc, and it’s why we locked down every bottle of La Source coming to America.

This wine’s majesty is evident from the moment it’s poured. Delicate white flowers gild a nose led by bold apple, lemon, and dried-herb flavors. It’s classically rich on the palate, with beautiful flavors of quince and beeswax, a powdered-quartz minerality, and power to spare. One sip is all it takes to remind you why these rare wines are so prized.

Saint-Joseph offers some of the top values in the Northern Rhône. Its best terroirs are hills that remind us of Hermitage on a smaller scale, and they’re often tantalizingly close to the town of Tain l’Hermitage itself. La Source is 100% Marsanne—the dominant white grape of Hermitage Hill—and is grown on the same kind of decomposed granite soils famous for producing Michel Chapoutier’s baller Hermitage bottlings.

Ferraton’s vines are farmed biodynamically. Chapoutier was originally brought on as a farming consultant, then took on a more active role in the winery over the years, implementing vineyard practices to encourage soil health and abundant microflora. Native yeast fermentation takes place in the winery before the wine is aged in a mixture of mostly stainless steel and a small fraction of older oak barrels.

All of this translates into a wine that presents the power and personality of these granite hills with little adornment—perfect for drinking now or over the next half-decade.

About Marsanne

Varietal Facts