La Fiole Du Pape CDP: Buried Treasure?

I really wanted to hate Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Fiole Du Pape Père Anselme: we’re not into ‘try hard’ here at sipply. We like good wines and see gaudy branding as a great way to disguise plonk and sell it to innocent and unassuming thirsty folks. Between the misshapen bottle and its golden anthracite gray powder we can all agree: it’s kitschy AF. But I’m here to humbly tell you: you can’t always judge a wine by the bottle, or the dust as it were.

After touring Père Anselme’s vineyards in the Rhone and trying his wines in-situ, I realized that this wine is consistently excellent quality, and has this magical ability to please almost every palette with its fruity, fresh and smooth character. Every grape is hand harvested, with the cuvee revealing classic notes of lavender, pepper, earth, roasted mushrooms and meat. The funny thing about these characteristics is they pair perfectly with the exact same foods: think lamb, hearty mushroom dishes and earthy cuisine.

At $45.99 it’s pricey but a true steal, and accessible in most regions of the U.S. Wine Advocate 91 points seems like robbery, but I’m going to guess it’s the critics trying to keep the price down for their Tuesday drinking bottle. Highly recommend. In fact the sipply team raised a glass of this CDP at our holiday party to toast the new year!