Winemaker Notes
Domaine de Beaurenard’s flagship wine is a quintessential blend, reflecting all the diversity of the terroir and the perfect synergy that exists between the soils and the grapes. It offers a supple and refined texture associated with a delicate aromatic palette that is the result of a constant quest for freshness.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Checking in as a blend of 65% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre, and the rest a handful of varieties, the 2019 Châteauneuf Du Pape was brought up in a mix of foudre and older barrels. This deep ruby/purple-hued effort has a pure, vibrant, incredibly seamless, medium to full-bodied style that carries classic notes of black raspberry and black cherry fruits as well as peppery herbs, violets, spring flowers, and sous bois. This straight-up gorgeous, seamless, ultra-fine 2019 should be snatched up by readers. It has a rare mix of elegance, purity, and power, and it’s going to have two decades of prime drinking.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and lush as well as vibrant and fresh, thanks to violet and graphite notes that enhance the corpulent cassis, plum and blackberry preserve flavors. Delivers light tar, anise and roasted apple wood notes on the finish. Drink now
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James Suckling
Very typical meaty and spicy nose with restrained red and black berries. An elegant, medium-bodied wine (in spite of 15.5% alcohol!) with fine tannins that gently build on the finish. Doesn’t need further aging. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Beauregard's entry-level 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape is a solid effort, blessed with scents of cherries, stone fruit and delicate shadings of garrigue on the nose. In the mouth, it's full-bodied, lush, almost creamy in texture, then long and supple, with just a touch of bitterness on the finish. A classic blend of roughly 65% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre and the balance a mix of the other permitted varieties, matured in a mix of mostly large-volume vessels, give it a year or two to round into full bloom and then drink it over the following decade. Best after 2023
The Coulons have estate-bottled their wines since the early 1900’s. Paul Coulon's father and grandfather were instrumental in creating the regulations of the Appellation Contrôlée system (Chateauneuf du Pape was France's first appellation contrôlée, in 1929). Detail oriented, meticulous to the point of perfectionism, visitors can peruse not only the informative Musée du Vin below their Rasteau vineyard, but detailed volumes for each vintage with ground temperatures, rainfall, hours of sunlight, etc.
Domaine de Beaurenard portfolio includes: Cotes du Rhone Rouge & Rose, Cotes du Rhone Villages Rasteau, Chateauneuf du Pape Rouge & Blanc and Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Boisrenard which is consistently one of Robert Parker and Stephen Tanzer's most highly rated Rhone wines.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
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.