The headline news: Olivier Klein’s lithe and vibrant Un Air Côtes-du-Rhône is back in stock. Twenty-twenty-three was a cracking vintage for this organic, value wine. The Klein family has long shown the purity and finesse that old-vine Grenache and Syrah can achieve in the Southern Rhône’s niche terroirs. Now, Olivier Klein uses more whole bunches, questing for tenderness, and finds they also aid with freshness. This is the kind of vibrant entry-level Côtes-du-Rhône which many more should emulate: glou-glou, feathery and precise. Klein also deserves special praise for bringing new energy to the Domaine’s whites, whose vines thrive in Sabran’s highland, limestone-rich soils. His whites build on the legacy established by his grandfather, François Klein. Attracted to Sabran's limestone soils, François planted the Domaine's first Bourboulenc on the property’s cooler, east-facing slopes in the '70s. Incremental plantings of Clairette, Roussanne and Grenache Blanc have followed, resulting in suave and precise vineyard-specific wines. In the face of warmer seasons, many growers in the Rhône Valley are waking up to the potential of the Rhône’s hardy, acid-retaining white varieties. Plantings have doubled over the past decade; Gigondas added white wines to the AOC in 2022, and Rasteau and Vinsobres are petitioning to do the same. Vincent Estevenin of Domaine de Marcoux tells us he recently planted a two-hectare field blend of white grapes; his story is one of many. You only need to look closer to home to see how well varieties like Clairette, Roussanne, and Grenache Blanc have adapted to our warm and dry Mediterranean climate. Just ask Pete Schell of Spinifex or Peter Fraser at Yangarra. Doubtless, Olivier's wines show that in the right hands, the high villages of eastern Côtes-du-Rhône can be a Shangri-La for white grapes as much as they are for reds.