Domaine Charvin, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Don’t just take my word for it: Any top critic of Rhône Valley wines will tell you that Domaine Charvin is a “reference point” producer. I would say it is the best Châteauneuf money can buy under $100, end of story.You want to understand what classic, impeccably balanced, age-worthy Châteauneuf-du-Pape is supposed to taste like? Taste Laurent Charvin’s, which, as a brief spin around the internet will confirm, is one of the most consistent, year-in-year-out performers in the appellation. Charvin makes a single Châteauneuf-du-Pape from his 10 hectares of vines—no single-vineyard bottlings, no special cuvées—and it is always a wine defined by a deep, intense perfume combined with elegance and restraint. It’s a full-bodied red in comparison to many other wines of the world, but on the Châteauneuf scale it falls more in the precision-balanced middle, which is just where we like it. Driven by 85% Grenache from organically farmed, 60-year-old vines—and aged only in concrete—this is a study in