Domaine de la Mordorée
Cuvee La Reine des Bois
Chateauneuf du Pape
2010

The producer

Domaine de la Morderee makes exemplary wines from several Rhone appellations – one of the very finest Tavels, and classy, great value Liracs, but their best wines come from Chateauneuf. Founded only in 1986, it is a relative newcomer, today owning 50 hectares of biodynamically cultivated vineyards in southern Rhone and, with each change of generation, continues to impress with lovely wines.

The wine

Despite traditional vinification and no new oak, ‘Cuvee La Reine des Bois’ (“queen of the woods”) is a powerful, ripe, and modern Chateauneuf that is immediately seductive but ages gracefully for a decade or more. Usually made from minimum 75% Grenache and complemented by mainly Syrah and Mourvedre, La Reine des Bois ages in a combination of stainless steel and old barrels and is a truly powerful and pure expression of the commune.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.