Domaine de la Mordorée - Tavel La Reine des Bois rosé 2024

Bettane & Desseauve

About the estate:

The estate produces highly expressive wines from the finest vineyards of Vaucluse and Gard. Every effort is made with deep respect for the terroirs, driven by a commitment to crafting wines that live up to their full potential. Madeleine Delorme, alongside her daughter Ambre, continues to work with great care and determination, upholding the spirit of excellence that defines both the estate and this winemaking family. A superb range of salty, full-bodied whites and deep, delicate reds, animated by a refreshing tension and a perfectly balanced structure. The estate is evolving its style toward increasingly refined and precise wines. The fourth star is fast approaching.

Guide Hachette des vins

About the wine:

Hand-picked grapes, aged for 10 months in vats: this Reine des Bois pulls out all the stops and lives up to its reputation. Elegant in its raspberry-tinged hue, it reveals itself in subtle hints of carnation, blackcurrant wood, and brown butter. Lively on the palate, pleasantly fruity (nectarine), the mid-palate offers a comfortable body, and the energetic finish makes you want to sit down to a meal. Perfect with an octopus salad or a squid ink paella.

About the estate:

Founded in 1986 by Francis Delorme and his son Christophe, the 58-hectare estate (certified organic and biodynamic) is spread across 38 plots and eight municipalities. Following Christophe’s untimely death in 2015, his wife Madeleine and their daughter Ambre took over the reins of the estate. Advocates of low yields, the Delormes produce vintages with disconcerting ease, whether in Tavel—their original stronghold—Lirac, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, or “simple” Côtes-du-Rhône. A must-try.

Robert Parker - Wine Advocate

About the wine:

The Tavel La Reine des Bois 2024 is a brilliant cuvée, with a more floral and minty profile than its sister wine, La Dame Rousse. Made from old vines planted in sandy soils and rounded pebbles on the Vallongue plateau, it exudes aromas of crushed strawberries, raspberries, grapefruit, cherries, and lilacs. Full-bodied, ample, and concentrated, this wine is complex and enveloping on the palate, built around a fleshy core of ripe fruit and framed by a fine, delicate tannic structure. A chalky tension supports the long, concentrated finish, bringing freshness and precision. It is a serious, vinous rosé with good aging potential.

James Suckling

Jeb Dunnuck

About the wine:

The Domaine De La Mordoree Tavel Cuvée De La Reine Des Bois 2024, produced in smaller quantities, is a similar blend but with an extra touch of Syrah (which likely explains its slightly deeper color), composed of 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, and 10% Cinsault and Clairette, and aged in tanks. It has a slightly deeper and darker nose of black cherries, red currants, crushed limestone, and white pepper. It is very reserved, with a mineral style, but it opens up to the air and develops many sweet nuances of wild strawberries as it breathes in the glass. It is medium-bodied and concentrated, with lively, integrated acidity and a salty, mineral finish. It is a very different style from the classic Tavel, offering more concentration, freshness, and acidity, but not quite the same complexity and mouthfeel. In any case, these two brilliant Tavels are benchmark wines that set the standard for the appellation.