Neal Rosenthal’s portfolio is littered with unique and special wines, but among them are a small handful of true one-of-a-kind masterpieces, like Bea's Sagrantino, Capellano's Pie Rupestris, or Fourrier's Clos St. Jacques. Chateaux Pradeaux's Bandol, though far less expensive or famous than any of those wines, truly deserves to be recognized as one of those masterpieces.

Pradeaux is unlike any other Bandol made today, as they are the only producer that continues to make wines exactly like they did two or three generations ago. The Bandol rouge is vinified in cement, then aged for years in huge, century-old Alsatian foudres. The Chateau is the only producer in Bandol that we know of who employs 100% whole clusters.

The grapes -- 95% Mourvedre -- come from organically-farmed vineyards with limestone-clay soils that lie by the sea. The Mediterranean plays a crucial role, imbuing the wines with tension and definition that are essential elements for graceful aging.

Tense and defined, yes, but also rich and gutsy. In top vintages they can be rather backward and need time in the cellar. The wine-maker at another, quite famous Bandol producer once told us that he wished he could make wines like Pradeaux, but was concerned that the market wouldn't understand them. But Pradeaux has had no trouble finding customers who understand their wines.

The genius behind Pradeaux since 1983 has been Cyrille Portalis, who has just retired. The magnificent 2015 is one of his last wines ever. To us, the situation reminds us a bit of when the old guard retired in the Northern Rhone and their wines went from absolute bargains to impossibly expensive unicorns.

What importer Rosenthal Wine Merchant has to say about this wine...

The Portalis family reserves their oldest vines for their flagship Bandol Rouge, and employs their younger plantings of Mourvèdre, complemented by splashes of Grenache and Cinsault, in the “Le Lys”—which we are excited to debut in the outstanding 2016 vintage. Comprising 85% Mourvèdre, plus roughly 10% Grenache and 5% Cinsault, “Le Lys” is de-stemmed around 50%, in contrast to the old-vines cuvée which is always fermented entirely whole-cluster. Etienne employs de-stemming here not to craft an easy and-forward wine, however, but to preserve equilibrium in a cuvée whose younger and less substantially sappy fruit may threaten to be overwhelmed by stem tannins. “Le Lys” spends two years in large oak casks rather than the appellation-outlying four years of the flagship red; it’s a long enough stint for its elements to harmonize beautifully, but the fruit remains ever so slightly juicier and more primary than in the old-vines Bandol Rouge. The drought-vintage 2016 delivers plenty of leather and a thick wall of ultra-black fruit, and even if it is less imposingly built than the flagship wine, it is far more serious, authoritative, and layered wine than most of what the appellation produces—and it is unmistakably Pradeaux to its core.

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