Rotem & Mounir Saouma Inopia Blanc Cotes du Rhone Villages 2019

93 points James Suckling
"A lovely nose of flint, matchstick, baked lemon and sliced pear. Medium-to full-bodied with silky texture. Wonderful concentration and length. White tea spice with lemongrass and grated nutmeg. A serious Cotes-du-Rhone that will change your mind about the appellation."

92 points Wine Spectator
"Succulent, with yellow apple and yellow plum notes mixed with star fruit, verbena and acacia notes. Tightly coiled still, with a racy edge on the shortbread-accented finish. This should unwind nicely with modest cellaring. Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Bourboulenc and Roussanne."

Jancis Robinson
"Full bottle 1,452 g. Mostly Grenache Blanc with some Marsanne, Roussanne and Clairette. Pressed in an old mechanical press. 18 months on less in 500-litre demi-muid and cement egg. The instruction on the bottle says, 'Decant with vim and vigor'!
This is one of those wines that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, your spine prickle. Bring the glass near and you know, instantly, that you're in one of 'thin spaces' that the Celts believed in: where the membrane between earth and heaven disappears. Mystical places; places where the rules bend. It's not the smell of smoke and struck stones, the smell of lemon peel curling on white-hot coals. It's not the mouth-watering freshness of crushed orchard apples or the threads of burnt bronze or the iridescence of herbs pressed into honey turned into an oil-textured sheen that seeps across your mouth with seductive stealth. It's not just the wicked kombucha-like tang that bites at the edge-most corners. It's something else. It's one of those wines that are the best wines – it leaves you with questions, no answers. A very special wine. 18/20 points. (TC)"

Vinous Reverie Notes
Burgundy meets the Rhône. An utter respect for tradition, and in some ways a total break. We’ve watched as Mounir and Rotem Saouma, of Burgundy producer Lucien Le Moine, slowly developed their estate and wines in the Rhône Valley, and the results today are too extraordinary and distinct to ignore.