Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018

Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018 is a Grenache-led Rhone red with cherry and raspberry, clove, leather and old-foudre depth from stony galets and clay. It feels like the domaine’s single red cuvée in a ripe, scented year. The old foudre note brings cocoa and quiet polish. Open it for roast lamb, wild mushrooms or a slow Sunday table.

About the Wine
Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018 comes from organically certified vines in the southern Rhone, with Grenache leading Syrah and Mourvèdre in the blend. The vineyards draw on galets roulés, sandy clay and limestone, the exact trio behind this bottle’s warm red fruit and stony grip. The domaine folds its red parcels into one main Châteauneuf-du-Pape cuvée; the 2018 feels like a single view across its holdings. You sense that in the way raspberry brightness sits beside darker leather notes. The alcohol is 15%, and the wine carries it as round fruit and sweet spice. Vinification follows the domaine’s old-foudre path after fermentation. The 2018 spent about 18 to 24 months in large old French oak foudres, which is the élevage Le Vieux Donjon favours for its red. The wood reads as clove, cocoa and polished savour. Grenache gives the open cherry core, then Syrah and Mourvèdre add darker spice and a firmer line. The dry finish keeps a village-cellar feel, with old oak texture wrapped around ripe berry fruit.

Tasting Notes
In the glass, the 2018 is deep ruby with a bright rim and a scent that leans into red fruit before darker foudre notes and garrigue warmth arrive. The nose is high-toned for a 15% Châteauneuf-du-Pape, moving through raspberry, cherry skin and potpourri with a smoky mineral edge that feels very Le Vieux Donjon. On the palate, ripe cherry and raspberry sit at the centre, and clove with star anise gives the Grenache-led blend a warm spice line. The finish brings leather, cocoa and a touch of lavender pastille, with fine tannins and enough energy to keep the long 2018 finish detailed. Drink 2025-2035.

Food Pairing
Pour Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2018 with roast lamb shoulder rubbed with rosemary and garlic, especially if the pan juices have that sticky edge that catches the wine’s clove and cocoa. Daube provençale is the regional call here, with slow-cooked beef, orange peel and black olive drawing out the wine’s leather and warm spice. For game, choose venison haunch or wild boar ragù over soft polenta; the 2018 has enough tannin for rich meat and enough red fruit for the sauce. Aged Comté or a firm tomme also suits the bottle, especially after an hour in a decanter when raspberry and cocoa move forward.

Producer
Le Vieux Donjon is unusual in Châteauneuf-du-Pape for putting its red vineyards into one main bottling, a decision that makes each release feel like a whole-domaine portrait from village edge to stony plateau and back to the cool cellar. The Michel family works from old cellars inside the village, and the wine has kept a steady traditional line through decades when many neighbours added special labels and luxury bottlings for selected parcels. For this domaine, old foudres matter as much as the blend sheet; the oak frames the wine slowly and leaves the 2018 marked by clove, leather and cocoa along with a gentle old-cellar savour. That single-cuvée habit gathers Grenache with Syrah and Mourvèdre in one place; sandy-clay parcels, limestone influences and galets-covered plots land in the same finished wine and give the label a mapped-out feeling. The domaine farms with organic certification, and the 2018 carries that close vineyard feel in its red-fruited perfume, its dry southern herb edge and its tannins that sit neatly inside the fruit. If you know Châteauneuf through glossy power cuvées, Le Vieux Donjon feels like a family table set among old stones, warm herbs and a bottle that needs no hurry.

We deliver within 2 - 6 business days. You can choose whether it should be to a parcel shop or home delivery. Free delivery to both parcel shops and your front door. Our store partners primarily use GLS, DPD, UPS and DHL for deliveries. We cover deliveries to the majority of countries in Europe.