Matthew Jukes
Wednesday Wines – Episode 301 – Happy 20th Birthday Whispering Angel & Friends
It has passed in a flash, these last twenty years. I remember Sacha Lichine telling me of his Provençal dream when he was still based in Bordeaux, and I had no reason to doubt he would make a go of it, given his energy and vision. But I don’t think anyone, aside from perhaps Sacha, could have imagined it would change the world in the way in which Whispering Angel and the phenomenal estate wines from Château d’Esclans have done. To date, there are countless imitators, and some make decent wines, but there is only one original, and it is fitting that this 20th-anniversary release is delicious, and that the ‘Grands Crus’, which are celebrated by the great and the good, are utterly stunning. Chapeau.
2025 Whispering Angel Rosé, 20th Vintage Limited Edition, Sacha Lichine, Côtes de Provence, France
It is fitting that the perfume here forms a veritable fanfare of glorious white peach, rhubarb, melon rind and pomegranates on the nose. And then, as if by magic, an invisible conductor ushers the audience to their seats, and, on command, the flavours seep onto the palate and rise gradually until every taste bud is immersed in gloriously refreshing, silky fruit. And then the flavours recede, leaving you with a feeling of monastic calm. You momentarily snap back to attention and repeat. Happy Birthday indeed, and it will last all year.
18/20
2024 Les Clans, Château d’Esclans, Domaines Sacha Lichine, Côtes de Provence, France
Les Clans has been performing at the top of its game for a good few years, and in 2024, the fruit has taken on a super-indulgent, hugely exotic stance on the palate. It seems intent on wooing your senses in the shortest time possible, so the stopwatch clicks into action. Job done. Few elite rosés on earth achieve their aim in the blink of an eye. This is a phenomenally grand wine with a cheeky Cirque du Soleil wink in every flavour flourish. This drama reveals itself in miniature explosions of ginger blossom and white pepper, and all this excitement is topped off with a plunge-pool of cleansing acidity. The beguiling crispness, coupled with the faintest tannic traction, allows this staggeringly proportioned wine to maintain a sense of decorum and poise. Silky-smooth, pure, and beautifully detailed, the glamour that the oak imprint brings to the party is jaw-dropping, and the whole experience warrants a minute or so of quiet reflection.
19/20
2023 Garrus, Château d’Esclans, Domaines Sacha Lichine, Côtes de Provence, France
It’s lazy to suggest that Garrus is simply Les Clans with more and larger bells and louder and more penetrative whistles. This is neither accurate nor helpful, yet I have heard it repeated ad infinitum. While these wines are siblings, they are built on very different platforms, which informs the scale and structure of fruit built on these foundations. Garrus is a more structured and foursquare wine, and it is initially more closed and guarded on the nose. The aroma is broader, flatter and less exotic, with clearly defined oak signals rising and falling in the glass. The fruit notes are more commanding and rigid, with a deeper thrum of power and hints of skin and pith among the reservoirs of coral-coloured, profoundly resonant fruit. As always, Garrus needs a year or two to drop its shoulders. And when this 2023 does, I imagine a dam of wild cherries, figs, fennel, pink peppercorns and wild herbs will tumble from the glass. It will romance pork, chicken and veal, not fish and plateaux de fruits de mer like its stablemate. If you want to drink Garrus now, pop back to the 2017 or 2020. The 2021 is starting to open, while the 2022 is already a catwalk model, but it still has a year to go. Only then should you uncork 2023 Garrus! In the meantime, bathe in Les Clans!