Dom. Pierre Usseglio et Fils
Chateauneuf du Pape
2020

The producer

Founded by Italian vineyard laborer who came to Chateauneuf after WWII and began making wine in 1949. His son Pierre gave his name to the estate and increased the holdings to 39 hectares today, 25 of which are in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and with an average age of 80 years old. Pierre’s two sons, Jean-Pierre and Thierry, now run the estate and vinify in a mix of concrete and oak.

The oldest vines are selected for the top wines Reserve des Deux Freres and Cuvee de Mon Aieul. Cuvee de Mon Aieul is 100% Grenache from the lieu-dits of Serres, La Crau and La Guigasse and produces an exotic, rich and powerful Chateauneuf immediately alluring but even better with up to ten years or more bottle age. Usseglio’s estate Chateauneuf-du-Pape is one of the best value wines of the region.

The wine

Usseglio’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape is a blend of mainly Grenache, with a little Syrah, Mourvedre, and Cinsault. The vine age ranges from 30-80 years and ageing lasts for 18-24 months in a combination of large oak casks and tank.  This is an immensely enjoyable, highly concentrated and structured red wine, with wild red berry aromatics intermingled with spices and chalky minerality.

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.