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Back in 2016 a discussion between Florent Lancon, of Domaine de la Solitude, and the French wine critic Michael Bettane was the catalyst for an incredible wine cuvee.

Domaine de la Solitude is one of the oldest estates in Chateauneuf du Pape, tracing its history back to the 13th century with no less than a Pope in the family tree! It has been run by the Lancon family for many decades and was one of the first domaines to estate-bottle.

The idea was to produce a wine as a tribute to their ancestor Paul Martin, who was one of the first French vignerons to sell his wine in bottle in the 18th century under the name "Vin de la Solitude".
Records at the domaine showed that blends at that time were very different. Whilst Grenache is the workhorse of Chateauneuf-du-Pape in the 21st century, hundreds of years ago, things were very different.

Florent modeled the new wine on the old blend of 30% Counoise, 25% hundred year-old Grenache noir, 15% Syrah, 15% Mourvèdre, 5% Clairette, 5% Bourboulenc, 5% Roussanne, Clairette rose and Grenache blanc. Two things are immediately obvious - the wine contains a huge amount of the rare Counoise grape (less than 0.5% of Chateauneuf is planted to this variety)  and quite a portion of white grapes, still allowed in Chateauneuf but only used by a few producers. 

Counoise is a dark-skinned grape that does not produce a lot of colour or tannin. It is used by domaines, including Chateau Beaucastel, to add spiciness and acidity. The presence of white grapes add a lightness and freshness.

All grapes were co-fermented and vinified as whole clusters (as an aside Florent has a great interest in Burgundy winemaking techniques). The wine was vinified in tronconic wood vats. Each grape variety was harvested at its own maturity, the first variety being the Syrah, picked in early September, and the last being the Counoise, picked in early October. The alcoholic fermentation was very long. For this new cuvee the wine was macerated for 80 days and aged for 18 months in old barrels.