Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Beaucastel 2010 Cotes du Rhone Coudoulet blanc may well be the best Coudoulet white I have ever tasted. I scored it very conservatively last year, but out of bottle this wine (again, a blend of 30% Viognier, 30% Bourboulenc, 20% Marsanne and the rest Clairette) is not dissimilar from drinking the Beaucastel Roussanne. This is a gorgeous wine, with wet stones interwoven with apricot marmalade, white peach, honeysuckle and rose petals. It is an extraordinary Cotes du Rhone white and possibly the best white Cotes du Rhone I have ever tasted.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and creamy up front, with butter-framed melon, creamed peach and pear notes that are then offset by a stony edge on the fresh finish. Blossoms in the glass. Bourboulenc, Viognier, Marsanne and Clairette.
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.
Typically thought of as a baby Chateâuneuf-du-Pape, the term Côtes du Rhône actually doesn’t merely apply to the flatter outskirts of the major southern Rhône appellations, it also includes the fringes of well-respected northern Rhône appellations. White wines can be produced under the appellation name, but very little is actually made.
The region offers some of the best values in France and even some first-rate and age-worthy reds. Red wine varieties include most of the Chateâuneuf-du-Pape varieties like Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Cinsault, and Counoise, as well as Carignan. White grapes grown include Grenache blanc, Roussanne and Viognier, among others.