Fondreche 2020 Ventoux Rouge 750ml

The base 2020 Ventoux has a beautiful, exotic nose of wild raspberries, strawberries, candied violets, and peppery garrigue. This flows to a medium-bodied, pure, incredibly elegant Ventoux that has plenty of chalky minerality, a seamless mouthfeel, good overall freshness, and enough structure to allow it to evolve for 10-12 years. It's beautifully done.

Score: 92 points -- Jeb Dunnock, jebdunnock.com, 2022

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The affable Sebastien Vicenti continues to turn out some of Ventoux's most exciting wines at Domaine de Fondreche. The producer is such a consistent performer that it's sometimes hard to remember Vicenti's been on the estate only since 1995. The property now totals 40 hectares, with 23 devoted to red (clay and limestone soils), seven to white (limestone soils), and ten to rosé (sandy soils). Most of the various cuvées are aged in a variety of containers, from foudres (he swears by Austrian cooper Stockinger) to concrete eggs and barriques. All of the fermentations here are performed without adding sulfur. "I find more purity and finesse," he said. Over the 20-plus years he's managed the property, he said he's evolved his grape growing and winemaking. "I'm focused on acidity and freshness more than alcohol."