Vinified with 100% whole clusters from a southwest-facing parcel exposed to the setting sun, the 2023 Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche reveals aromas of dark berries, fresh licorice and crushed stones, underpinned by a striking concentration of black fruit. Full-bodied, dense and structured yet beautifully enveloping, it’s deep and multidimensional, framed by remarkably velvety, refined tannins and displaying impressive length and precision. One would scarcely suspect the presence of whole clusters, so seamless is the integration. All the subtlety of submerged-cap fermentation translates here into a racy, powerful and irresistibly seductive Côte-Rôtie. It's one of my favorites in the appellation.

Vignobles Levet has never sought the spotlight, and the wines reflect that disposition: structured, mineral and unhurried, they belong to a tradition of Côte-Rôtie that predates the appellation's modern celebrity, one that the domaine, almost alone among its neighbors, has preserved without self-consciousness.

The estate was founded in 1929 by Agnès Levet's grandfather, a grower whose curiosity extended well beyond the boundaries of Ampuis at a time when few of his neighbors travelled at all: visits to vineyards in the Southern Rhône, Savoie and Switzerland informed an observational approach to viticulture that Agnès, who assumed direction in 2004, has continued in her own fashion. The domaine farms around 4.5 hectares entirely within the commune of Ampuis, across a cross-section of parcels—Chavaroche, Leyrat, Fongeant, Lancement, Côte Brune, Côte Blonde, Landonne and Côte Rozier—that few estates of this size can match for appellational breadth. From the outset, plant material has been a defining preoccupation: the Levets cultivate exclusively Petite Sérine, an old Syrah selection producing small, ovoid berries and naturally loose clusters, which the family maintains through massal selections across generations. The practical consequences of that choice—lower yields, finer tannins, a particular aromatic lift—are legible in every serious vintage the domaine produces.

Herbicides and pesticides disappeared from the rows long ago, and work on the steep slopes proceeds largely by hand. The objective is balance rather than maximal ripeness, and the wines reflect that orientation consistently. In the cellar, Agnès relies on methods that have largely disappeared elsewhere in the appellation. Fermentations proceed with whole clusters in concrete tanks, and she retains the submerged-cap system with wooden grids—an old technique that keeps the cap immersed in the must—she also favors slow, measured extraction, contributing to the structural tension and aromatic precision that define the domaine's better vintages. Élevage takes place in barrels, approximately 15% new, drawn principally from Vicard and Millet.

The 2023 vintage suits this style with particular aptitude. A humid spring gave way to a fine summer through July and August; harvest opened on 11 September for Condrieu and 19 September for Côte-Rôtie. The wines show the freshness, precision and clear site articulation that the vintage delivered to those who managed it attentively, combining the season's natural tension with the mineral line and structural depth that Levet's methods consistently produce. When the domaine achieves that balance—terroir transmitted clearly, phenolic roughness absent, the wines' customary purity fully expressed—it ranks among the most compelling addresses in Côte-Rôtie, and the 2023s confirm that the balance, this year, has been found. Published: May 21, 2026