Winemaker Notes
Blend: 39% Roussanne, 38% Grenache White, 15% Clairette, 8% Bourboulenc
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A similar blend (slightly more Grenache Blanc), the 2011 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc shows a touch more citrus and green herbs, with additional minerality that is most likely due more to the additional year in bottle than anything else. Slightly leaner and straighter than the 2012, it too is a beautiful wine that stays beautifully focused, with impressive acidity and an overall classy feel. Drink it over the coming year or two.
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Wine & Spirits
This rolls over the tongue with the smoothness of a galet, leaving a warm, sunny impression behind. It's opulent and oaky, as creamy as rice pudding, with a salty minerality that turns it savory and mouthwatering.
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Wine Spectator
This is high-pitched, with talc, green almond, plantain, chamomile and green plum notes that move along briskly, ending in a pure, stony finish.
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.