As I have mentioned in the past, the Cuvée Claudius from Pauline Passot is her oldest vine cuvée, as these vines are now more than one hundred years of age! This wine is also fairly ripe for the vintage, tipping the scales at fourteen percent octane, but this is a half point lower than the lovely 2020 version checked in at a couple of years ago. The wine offers up a deep and beautifully black fruity nose of dark berries, black cherries, coffee bean, spit-roasted gamebird, bonfire, a hint of sweet stem tones, peonies and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and beautifully sappy at the core, with a fine base of soil inflection, firm, ripe and buried tannins, lovely balance and a very long, complex and classy finish. As is the case with the 2022 Fleurie “Bel Air” from Madame Passot, there is just a whisper of sur maturité to the fruit flavors here, but it is very, very minimal. This is a properly structured 2022 Cru and it is going to want some hibernation time to soften up its underlying tannins, but in due course, it is going to be stunning.
94 points, John Gilman, View From The Cellar (Dec 2023)
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