92 points
"The 2022 Châteauneuf du Pape from Baptiste Grangeon at Domaine Cristia is crafted from a cépages of seventy-five percent grenache, fifteen percent syrah and ten percent mourvèdre, with the last two varieties raised in older casks, rather than the cement vats in which the grenache spends its élevage. All of the vineyards here are farmed organically and the wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts. The 2022 version comes in listed at 14.5 percent octane and delivers a fine and classic bouquet of red and black raspberries, fruitcake, pepper, smoked meats, garrigue, a complex base of soil tones and a topnote of distant bonfire. On the palate the wine is deep, complex and full-bodied, with a fine core of fruit, good soil inflection and grip, firm, ripe and buried tannins and fine focus on the complex and very well balanced finish. This is an excellent bottle of young Châteauneuf du Pape, with only a whisper of backend heat and a very promising future."
VFTC
Issue 113