Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape blanc is slightly more closed than its 2011 counterpart, as it has been in the bottle for nearly a year. Again 80% Roussanne and 20% Grenache blanc vinified in tank, the wine displays the typical tropical fruit notes intermixed with rose petals, crushed rock, spring flowers and a rather exotic, somewhat tropical character, but tangerines dominate the fruit spectrum.
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Wine & Spirits
This is plush and seamless, a broad white brimming with apricot fruit fully backed with umami richness. There's acidity, but it's only perceptible in the juiciness of the fruit; otherwise it has the lofty firmness of a four-star-hotel bed. The salinity of its mineral tones and the toasty, nutty edge of roussanne gives the wine a complexity that brings to mind a great Alpine cheese. It would take a croque monsieur into a different stratosphere.
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Wine Spectator
Juicy up front, with lively star fruit, peach and yellow apple fruit, this turns plush and languid, with alluring grilled hazelnut, sweetened butter and warm piecrust notes filling in on the finish. Sneakily long, thanks to the nicely integrated acidity. Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Picardan, Clairette and Bourboulenc. Drink now through 2015.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
Famous for its full-bodied, seductive and spicy reds with flavor and aroma characteristics reminiscent of black cherry, baked raspberry, garrigue, olive tapenade, lavender and baking spice, Châteauneuf-du-Pape is the leading sub-appellation of the southern Rhône River Valley. Large pebbles resembling river rocks, called "galets" in French, dominate most of the terrain. The stones hold heat and reflect it back up to the low-lying gobelet-trained vines. Though the galets are typical, they are not prominent in every vineyard. Chateau Rayas is the most obvious deviation with very sandy soil.
According to law, eighteen grape varieties are allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and most wines are blends of some mix of these. For reds, Grenache is the star player with Mourvedre and Syrah coming typically second. Others used include Cinsault, Counoise and occasionally Muscardin, Vaccarèse, Picquepoul Noir and Terret Noir.
Only about 6-7% of wine from Châteauneuf-du-Pape is white wine. Blends and single-varietal bottlings are typically based on the soft and floral Grenache Blanc but Clairette, Bourboulenc and Roussanne are grown with some significance.
The wine of Chateauneuf-du-Pape takes its name from the relocation of the papal court to Avignon. The lore says that after moving in 1309, Pope Clément V (after whom Chateau Pape-Clément in Pessac-Léognan is named) ordered that vines were planted. But it was actually his successor, John XXII, who established the vineyards. The name however, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, translated as "the pope's new castle," didn’t really stick until the 19th century.