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.
Blend: 65% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre, Other Varieties
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape is terrific, offering classic darker berry fruits as well as peppery garrigue and sappy flower notes. As with the Boisrenard release, this has plenty of tannins and structure, but it’s beautifully balanced and has remarkable purity as well as a great finish.
Rating: 94+ -
Vinous
The pale ruby-colored 2020 Châteauneuf-du-Pape opens with rose water, raspberry, strawberry, dried herbs and licorice aromas. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated and built around a smooth tannic structure with absolutely no hard edges, refreshing acidity balances this savory red that ends with a long-lasting finish.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant red, with nice freshness and purity to the wild cherry, plum and red licorice flavors. Shows a spine of crushed graphite that firms up the somewhat structured palate, with charred garrigue and sandalwood on the finish.
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.