Winemaker Notes
A luminous pale yellow, La Capitelle de Baronarques Blanc 2023 is remarkably precise and expressive, combining delicate oak on the nose with delightfully crisp white fruit such as apple and pear lifted by a hint of citrus fruit and a floral touch. The immediately round and generous palate shows great brightness, while its soft and light texture is lifted by a touch of minerality, leaving an impression of refinement and freshness.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Blossoming, balanced, and generous, the 2023 Limoux La Capitelle De Baronarques Blanc has the dual quality of being both gastronomic and refreshing. This pure Chardonnay, aged for six months in barrels and three months in stainless steel vats, reveals citrus and salty notes, pear, bergamot, green tea, and hints of marzipan and elderflower. Fresh, smooth, and phenolic on the palate, it is a sapid, complex and luminous white wine. Drink 2025-2032.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
While Limoux also produces both white and red wines, it is ultimately recognized as a sparkling wine zone. Blanquette de Limoux is the region’s original sparkler, which is based on Mauzac with small amounts of Chardonnay and/or Chenin Blanc. The more rustic and traditional version, Blanquette Méthode Ancestrale, is an often cloudy and sweeter sparkling wine made exclusively from Mauzac.
In the 1990s, the region created the more modern, Crémant de Limoux, for international markets.