Winemaker Notes
Bright gold. This elegant and refined wine offers notes of white peach, nectarine, almond, and hazelnut along with delicate minty and almost smoky notes. The oak is well integrated, and the finish is long. A great white wine made for cellaring.
Blend: 52% Roussanne, 48% Grenache Blanc
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Châteauneuf Du Pape Clos De Beauvenir Blanc (52% Roussanne and 48% Grenache Blanc) is along the same lines, if not a touch more focused and precise. Honeyed pears, white flowers, spice, and crushed stone-like minerality all define the aromatics, and it's medium to full-bodied, has a concentrated, layered mouthfeel, and a gorgeous finish.
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James Suckling
A stunning white with volume, verve and balance. It shows aromas of yellow plums, baked pears, wild herbs, white flowers and some sweet spices. Medium-bodied with plenty of volume. The stone fruit mingles with the spices and herbs. It's suave, textural and focused. Vivid and in control with a long, vibrant finish. 52% roussanne and 48% grenache blanc. From organically grown grapes.
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Wine Spectator
A mouthfilling, decadent style, grounded by a serious mineral foundation. Honeysuckle, star fruit and creamed yellow apple are flecked with green herbs and a flattering brush of toasty oak and almond richness. Still tightly wound, offering a lot of wine in a well-packed frame that will unfurl with time. Bitter, grapefruit pithy acidity shores up the finish, which shows real power. Roussanne and Grenache Blanc. Best from 2026 through 2035. 25 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A deep, complex bouquet of white fruits, jasmine, flowers, honeysuckle, ripe orchard fruits and spices introduces the 2023 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc Clos de Beauvenir, a full-bodied, round wine with a fleshy core of fruit, bright acids, a layered palate and a long, delicate, ethereal finish enhanced by a delicate phenolic aftertaste. This outstanding wine is a blend of 52% Roussanne and 48% Grenache Blanc, vinified and matured for nine months in large barrels, or demi-muids.
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Vinous
Matching the quality of the preceding 2022 vintage, the 2023 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Clos de Beauvenir showcases fragrant lemon flesh, vanilla and cedar alongside flinty subtleties. Full-bodied and rich, the 2023 packs plentiful flavor concentration, flawlessly kept in check by bright acidity. A long and elegant 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.