2023 Ferraton Pere et Fils La Source Blanc Saint-Joseph 750 ml

Few white wines can compete with the grandeur of the Rhône’s best bottles. Powerfully lush, with rich texture and stony minerality, they command attention at the table and inspire rapturous obsession among collectors.

Unfortunately, they’re as uncommon as they are fantastic. Just 5% of the Northern Rhône is planted to white grapes, which is why we leapt at the chance to bring back La Source Blanc. 

Ferraton has “access to some of the best vineyards in the region,” according to Vinous, “and certainly gets the most of them.” They do that through the winemaking of Michel Chapoutier, who, with 40 separate 100-point scores to his name, is no less than a deity of Rhône winemaking.

But Ferraton, despite their fantastic terroir, despite the famous winemaker at the helm, remains an insider secret. Vinous commented that the estate “produces outstanding white wines, but they're still an under-the-radar winery." That translates into prices that are a far cry from Chapoutier’s $400 Hermitage Blanc. 

St.-Joseph offers some of the top values in the Northern Rhône. Its best terroirs are hills that remind us of Hermitage on a smaller scale, and they’re often tantalizingly close to the town of Tain l’Hermitage itself. La Source is 80% Marsanne—the dominant white grape of Hermitage Hill—plus 20% Roussanne, all grown on the same kind of decomposed granite soils that are famous for producing Michel Chapoutier’s baller Hermitage bottlings.

That translates into a classic Northern Rhône.wine that presents the power and personality of these granite hills with little adornment—perfect for drinking now or over the next half decade.