Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A spectacular, focused and structured red from old-vine co-plantings of the 13 varietals accepted in the appellation. The nose shows notes of spices, cherries, dark plums, currants, wild herbs, baking spices, bark and some peppercorns. It’s full-bodied with fine tannins. There is class in this wine, with a delicate, silky texture at the center and a wise structure framing the palate. Freshness kicks in toward the end and lifts the long finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A smaller production release that's based largely on a field blend, the 2021 Châteauneuf Du Pape Boisrenard sees a touch of stems and is aged mostly in foudre, with a tiny 2% in new oak. One of the deeper hued, richer, more structured and serious wines in the vintage, it has an absolutely gorgeous perfume of blackberries, sappy garrigue, spring flowers, graphite, and crushed stone. It's not massive by any means and shows the more linear style of the 2021 vintage, yet it has a great mid-palate, clean, vibrant acidity, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It's a brilliant bottle of wine that will benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face over the following decade or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
An unusually complete offering given the challenges of the vintage, Beauregard's 2021 Chateauneuf du Pape Boisrenard delivers waves of black raspberries accented by black olives and hints of garrigue. Full-bodied, rich and supple, with a long, velvety finish.
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Wine Spectator
This red's flavors of strappy black cherry, damson plum and fruitcake spices are edged in graphite as violet perfume adds lift, with good energy and subtly chewy tannins. Showing good power and energy, this is built for the long haul. One for the cellar. Drink now through 2032. 1,000 cases made, 200 cases imported.
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Vinous
The 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes Le Boisrenard is spicier than the traditional Châteauneuf-du-Pape from the same vintage. Savory spice-box, licorice, black cherry, black plum and a touch of violet rise up from the glass. Full-bodied, round and concentrated, the Vieilles Vignes Le Boisrenard shows well despite the challenging 2021 growing season, walking off the stage with vivid energy on the polished finale.
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.