I’ll never cease to be impressed with the allure of Château Simone: Not only is an evolving bottle of their Palette Blanc a one-of-a-kind wine experience, they’re among the most iconic yet vastly underrated producers on earth—which makes their wines all the more tempting. Owned by the generations of the Rougier family for nearly 200 years, Simone delicately crafts their supernatural Palette Blanc from a sorcerous blend of ancient raw material and ages it for an impossibly long duration in their hand-dug, 16th-century cellar. If you’re striving to own the world’s most enchanting wines, today’s singular, deeply evocative bottle must be at the very top of your list.
What’s more, they are (1) meticulously built for a nearly inexhaustible cellar life and (2) incomparable in taste—imagine, if you can, a hybrid of decade-plus White Burgundy, López de Heredia Blanco, and JL Chave Hermitage Blanc! It’s not just intriguing, it’s certifiably enthralling. I mean it: this is a riveting wine, and in the case of Château Simone, there’s simply no choice but to pile on superlatives. With a multi-century history of inimitable quality and grandeur, Simone is one of southern France’s few and undisputed Grand Crus. The one and only caveat is the wines need time to mature, typically 7-10 years after the vintage. So, we dug extremely deep and emerged with today’s marvelous, in-its-sweet-spot 2013. Quantities are dangerously low and purchases must be capped at six bottles.
Owned by the Rougier family since 1830, the property clings to a single hillside in Montaiguet, a small hamlet just east of Aix-en-Provence, 20 miles north of Marseille. The appellation that encompasses this village is Palette AOC, and even as a small independent producer, Château Simone produces a majority of the wine labeled within the designation. To the naked eye, Château Simone appears to be a classic family-run estate, but it’s impossible to begin discussing the property without immediately diving into the myriad qualities that make this one of the most distinctive estates in France.
The first and perhaps most shocking feature of the Rougier family’s vines is that they are north facing. Yes, you read that correctly—Simone’s vines cling to a 750-foot limestone face that is angled away from the sun. This is unusual, but it allows the vines to retain their freshness, despite the region’s fierce heat. It is one of the very few north-facing vineyards (in the northern hemisphere) I’ve ever seen that produces world-class wine. Next, there is a mind-boggling diversity of grape varieties among these ancient vines. Château Simone’s reds combine Grenache, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Syrah, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Manosquin, Castet, Muscat Noir, Théoulier, Tibouren, Picpoul Noir, Muscat de Hambourg, and many others—not be outdone, today’s white is composed of Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc, Ugni Blanc, Picpoul, and a touch of Muscat Blanc. Finally, the character of Château Simone’s wines is perhaps what is most unique and fascinating for sommeliers. Despite the punishingly hot and long growing season, the preternaturally old vines, and mixed bag of varieties, Château Simone does not produce heavy or syrupy wines. On the contrary, the Rougiers are renowned for bottling chiseled whites that are defined by their power, elegance, balance, and detail.
Château Simone’s grapes are harvested by hand, de-stemmed, and lightly pressed before fermentation. Indigenous yeast fermentation lasts for two to three weeks in wooden vats. Fermentation takes place at an unmanipulated, relatively warm temperature and the resulting wine is aged for one year in 20–30 hl casks, followed by an additional year in mature oak barrels and further bottle aging. All told, the process takes more than four years before release into the US market—but it’s still not enough! In my experience with Château Simone, the wines generally require 7-10 years before they start to really show their stuff. Today’s wine is a perfect example: I’ve opened a few bottles of this vintage since it was released, but only now, after three additional years of rest, is it truly screaming and wide open!
That said, it still needs time once the cork is pulled: From minute one to minute 30, it morphs into a completely different animal, and hits a sweet spot beyond one hour. Deep yellow with a golden hue, this exploded with powerfully rich aromatics of bruised yellow apple, quince, apricot, white pear, ultra-ripe pineapple, acacia honey, crushed stones, orange blossom, almond skin, lanolin, vanilla bean, salt-preserved lemon, and a touch of exotic spice. There is incredible depth on the palate that brings an endless savory finish and keeps your mind racing with each nuanced component that emerges. Creamy, multi-textured, and brilliantly unique, this is a profound spectacle that reveals a chameleonic side with oxygen exposure—I cannot stress that enough! Serve in bulbous Burgundy stems around 55-60 degrees and watch it blossom over several hours and into the next day, should you have the patience (your other unopened bottles will survive for 10-15 more years!). With special company flanking your side, this experience cannot be outdone. Cheers!
