Domaine Vieux Donjon

Along with a small handful of other estates, I consider Claire Michel’s le Vieux Donjon at the top of the heap when it comes to classic, age-worthy and traditionally made Châteauneuf du Papes. WINE ADVOCATE 

I wish that more of Vieux Donjon’s white Châteauneuf were made, because it has consistently been among the best examples from the appellation for at least the last decade. JOSH RAYNOLDS 

For decades the small domaine Le Vieux Donjon has been one of the most consistently outstanding producers of classically wrought Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The Michel family owns 18 hectares of vines in the appellation, with just one of them devoted to white grapes. A decent amount of red wine is made here each year, given that this is one of the holdout estates to issue only one red and one white bottling. Lucien Michel put his wines on the map back in the 1970s. Today, his children, Claire Fabre and her brother, François Michel, are more than upholding the domaine’s reputation. JOSH RAYNOLDS 

As I’ve written many times, Le Vieux Donjon is a reference point estate for classically made Châteauneuf du Pape. Their Châteauneuf du Pape comes from a mix of terroirs and is always a majority Grenache with smaller amounts of Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Cinsault, partially destemmed, with the élevage in a mix of concrete tanks and large foudre. In addition to their red, they make a terrific Châteauneuf du Pape Blanc. JEB DUNNUCK 

I appreciate the Vieux Donjon style for its traditional and savory characteristics, always maintaining balance and avoiding excess, even in bolder vintages like 2019. NICHOLAS GREINACHER, Vinous Media 2024 

We are extremely happy to have been asked to represent this great estate in Australia. Donjon has been a go to for traditional Chateauneuf du Pape for a very long time. As with most of the arch traditionalists the fruit is sourced from a number of plots across the region, lending the wines a more complete representation of CNDP. The rise of the single site bottlings, as with their cousins in the Northern Rhone, is very much a modern trend. 

Producers like Donjon maintain that the greatest examples are made when the best elements of a number of sites from across the area are combined. Where the variations in soil, and microclimate, provide different elements that can result in a totally compelling picture of the area. Many of the great names, of which Donjon is absolutely one of, still take this approach today, even if they have separate single site offerings. 

I will tell you something, from my point of vieux (see what I did there?), the most exciting thing is the white. No secret that I have a thing for white Rhones. To have one of the top producers in our portfolio, well that is very exciting. Young Alex Wilcox came in rambling about it the other day. He had been at some fancy dinner and opened a bottle, he couldn’t stop telling everyone how good it was. I can confirm. I grabbed one for myself to… taste, on the weekend. Electrically charged power puncher of a wine. 

Raised entirely in neutral vessels, the idea here is to preserve freshness and allow the wines limestone and clay terroir to shine on through. Certainly the whites of this region, for me, are often better served when they are treated in much the same way as someone might make Chablis, or Riesling. Get the fruit right and then try not to lose any of the detail and nuance that can make these so attractive. Unlike their red, this is a single site, no one in CNDP, to my knowledge, makes much white, it’s a tiny percentage of the region’s plantings, so having only one small plot is pretty normal. Getting the right site, that is often what separates good and great wine here. 

Fortunately, Donjon has their white planted on the base historic Cabrieres “Cru”. Here there is more clay to the rocky, limestone derived soils. Limestone is one of the keys to success. You can feel the sizzle and tension here, even though this is a properly large scaled wine. Yeah, it rocks. Tastes like rocks too. So minerally. 

The attention will inevitably go to the Rouge, for good reason, that is what they are famous for, but before I get on to that I really wanted to make it clear that the Blanc is, for me, a must have. If you don’t often buy whites from CNDP you should. They are rich, powerful, fulsome and forthright wines, but when they get the balance right, and when the weight is matched with freshness, they are some of the best food wines you will find anywhere. 

Joe Cerzewinski notes “One of the few estates in the appellation to make just a single red wine”. That gets to the heart of one of these important points regarding Donjon. Perhaps why they didn’t take off with some of the other greats in the area circa 2000 when CNDP really hit the mainstream. So many estates began making these super charged, single site wines. Throwing the kitchen sink at them to flash things up a bit for certain markets and make a big fuss about nothing really exciting. Donjon didn’t shift. Not one inch. They remained true to their roots and the region’s history. 
We see similar things happening, for example, in Barolo. So many producers jumped on the single vineyard, modern winemaking camp. It worked, as it did here, it got new people involved and excited. For a long time these super old school guys were not the cool kids in town. Now, especially in Piedmont, you see a huge swing back towards traditionalism. Producers now deliberately going back to multi vineyard expressions. New, small wood is vanishing as quickly as it arrived. 

Customers and nerds look for fresher, cleaner, brighter and more transparent styles. Just like these guys have done for generations. Here all their top fruit is blended into one wine. That is aged in old concrete and other neutral vessels. A fair amount of whole bunches adds gravitas, serves to enliven the mouthfeel while building in some structure. Very unusually these days, Donjon continues with co fermenting their varieties, rather than fermenting them separately and blending later, believing this will form a more complete and seamless wine, which it does. 

You don’t have to read too many of our old CNDP offers to know that this is the style we all love, and have talked up, for decades. This is what makes this region so remarkable. Wines like this, wines that absorb their place and clearly show their season, while retaining the natural heft and volume of the area. Man, Donjon is the place you want to be buying CNDP from. 

It’s always exciting to be approached by a domaine of this calibre and fame to take their wines on as an importer. For us, because we love them. For you because we can now supply them to people who we know will also fall in love. 

They fit perfectly in our, I think, awesome Rhone portfolio. 

We are often thought of as the place for Burgundy and all things Italian, but on closer inspection you see the list of truly gifted winemakers we work with from throughout the Rhone Valley. Wines like this, from estates of this ilk, they are what makes wine so exciting and the more people we can encourage to drink top flight Rhone, the happier we all are at PWS HQ. We are very particular about who we engage in these relationships with, and we are thrilled that Donjon is now among them. 

For decades the small domaine Le Vieux Donjon has been one of the most consistently outstanding producers of classically wrought Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The Michel family owns 18 hectares of vines in the appellation, with just one of them devoted to white grapes. A decent amount of red wine is made here each year, around 7,000 cases, given that this is one of the holdout estates to issue only one red and one white bottling. Lucien Michel put his wines on the map back in the 1970s. Today, his children, Claire Fabre and her brother, François Michel, are more than upholding the domaine’s reputation. Both the 2018 and 2019 bottlings deliver the goods, with the 2019, especially, a long-distance runner based on its balance. JOSH RAYNOLDS