France, Rhône
http://www.domaine-mordoree.com/

Started in 1986 by the Delorme brothers, Domaine de la Mordorée (woodcock) has become one of the top estates in the Rhône, with arguably the most consistent quality. Christophe Delorme's objective as a winemaker is to be unintrusive and maintain total respect for his terroir and the fruit it produces, striving to achieve a perfect balance between concentration, terroir and balance.

The domaine consists of 55 Hectares, on 38 different parcels, providing a rich, wide range of soils and climates. Seeking to make the minimum long-term impact on nature, they practiced culture raisonnée'.

Christophe's approach was so 'raisonnée' that he held back from being fully organic because he was worried about the long-term effect of putting too much copper (the form of copper sulphate, a permitted treatment in organic viticulture) onto his vineyards. Now due to the improvements on formulations, and work done in disease prevention, they can use copper sulphate with very low concentrations, these levels are not impacting the soils.

The whole domaine has been certified organic since 2007.

Jeb Dunnock October 2014 - Another reference point estate in Chateauneuf du Pape (of which it seems like there are many), Domaine de la Mordoree includes a whopping 135 acres in total, yet with only 12 of those in Chateauneuf du Pape. The wines are made by the incredibly talented Christophe Delorme, and while they see time in oak and can have a modern feel in their youth, they never lose their Southern Rhone roots and age beautifully. As to the roses, the majority of the 2012s have already been reviewed by Robert Parker earlier this year (and I generally rated them a point or more higher than him) so I’ll just list the new wines here.