Jean Paul Versino’s day job is running the Bois de Boursan Chateauneuf-du-Pape domaine, one of the best and oldest-school wineries in the appellation. The hallmarks of the Boursan wines are complexity and restraint. No grape is picked after its time and even in warm vintages their wines have acidity. These attributes are just as true for the Petit Oursan wines they make. Just outside Chateauneuf, there is a curious vineyard in the village of Jonquieres that doesn’t quite fit into any sort of appellation, but produces beautiful fruit in both red and white. The Versino family purchased the vineyard and dedicated it to making excellent and shockingly inexpensive Rhone wines. This white cuvee is made entirely out of the Clairette grape from the 2022 and 2023 vintages. Clairette is perhaps the best variety of any color in the whole Rhone Valley at ripening with acidity intact. The wine gives aromas of Asian pear, peach, acacia, and salted lemon. The palate is a starburst of lemon and orange zest, plantain, and kiss melon that finishes with a touch of salty minerality. Most white Rhone at this price tastes confected and standardized by commercial yeast, but the Versino family doesn’t use commercial yeast, so even at this everyday price, there’s definition and soul here.