2023 Maison du Midi Chateauneuf-du-Pape 750 ml

With over four decades in the wine business, Fran Kysela’s name is pure gold—and some of his most impressive work doesn’t have his name anywhere near it.

Kysela has a knack for quietly assembling estate-grown wines from top appellations and offering them at incredibly fair prices. The Maison du Midi label represents his effort to bring that philosophy to the Southern Rhône, and it’s been responsible for some of the best and most critically acclaimed CdP deals of recent years.

It’s true: High-quality Châteauneuf-du-Pape has all but vanished from the weeknight wine category. But the outstanding 2023 Maison du Midi Châteauneuf-du-Pape turns conventional wine-buying wisdom on its head by offering a rare combo of impeccable pedigree and showstopping value.

The mastermind behind this project is legendary importer/négociant Fran Kysela, the Master Somm who Robert Parker called “one of the finest palates and selectors of top wine.” For this succulent Grenache-dominated Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Kysela teamed up with the fifth-generation Brotte clan, owners of Domaine Barville and one of the first producers to estate-bottle Châteauneuf, back in the 1930s.

In the knockout 2023 release, a blend of 90% Grenache, 5% Syrah, and 5% Mourvèdre from the pebbly, sandy vineyards of the Brotte family estate delivers both structure and sensuousness. Aged in 100-year-old wooden casks and stainless steel, this bottling delivers loads of fruit and savory herbs—ripe blackberries, dark cherries, wild thyme—with drink-now immediacy.

Grown by a deep-rooted Châteauneuf family, blended by one of the best palates in the business, this is a dream buy from the Rhône—miraculously priced for everyday drinking.