2012 Chateau Simone Palette Blanc 1.5L
Regular price $129.98
The Palette Blanc is built on the back of Clairette, a relatively neutral variety that allows Simone’s limestone-rich soils to voice their minerality with force and resonance. Rounding out the blend are Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc, Ugni Blanc, Picpoul, Muscat, along with such oddities as Pascal, Terret Bouret, and Aragnan; all are pressed whole-cluster and co-fermented. It spends a year in large barrels, a second year in smaller barrels, and a year in the cellar resting.
Dense and viscous upon release, it typically begins to unfurl around four or five years past harvest, with glimmers of Provencal herbs and raw almonds peeking out from its profoundly mineral-driven vortex. An unmistakable note of pine resin, speaking to the forests which surround the vineyards, amplifies with age, and the limestone which throws uppercuts in youth turns to something more refined, long, and graceful, keeping the wine focused and linear as its other elements spread their wings. Then, at around eight years past vintage, Simone Blanc shifts into overdrive, with notes of marzipan, fresh cream, and nougat locking into formation with the emerging pine character and the blossoming lemon-curd fruit element in a vibrant dance that points toward a shockingly long evolution. In southern France, perhaps only Hermitage Blanc can rival Simone Blanc in its evolutionary fireworks.