Winemaker Notes
#83 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2025
Located on a mild terroir of slopes, between Clavin and les Hauts-lieux, the Grenache is perfectly at home there with this mosaic of safres's sands, pebbles and red clays, producing a perfect balance of power and finesse.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Trois Sources comes from a terroir similar to the Reserve and is based on 70% Grenache, 10% Cinsault, 5% each Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Counoise, and the rest a mix of varieties. Ripe blackberries, roasted garrigue, loamy soil, licorice, and a kiss of graphite all emerge on the nose, and this beauty hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a layered, seamless mouthfeel, beautiful yet building tannins, and a great finish. It's slightly more open and expressive than the Les Hauts-Lieux, yet I suspect both of these cuvées will cruise for two decades.
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Wine Spectator
Shows subdued, hidden power and a gorgeous texture, though this is just beginning to unfurl. Warm earth, brown bread and toasted anise notes infuse a perfumed core of red fruit. Racy acidity keeps the tension high, and there's a licorice snap detail on the finish, which is defined, smoky and long. Grenache, Syrah, Cinsaut, Mourvèdre and Counoise. Best from 2027 through 2040.
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James Suckling
A serious, well-made and lively Chateauneuf-du-Pape with blackberries, plums, peppercorns and a hint of leather. It's full-bodied with fine-grained tannins. Driven and precise, with succulent fruit and spice giving a flavorful, persistent finish. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Crafted from vines planted in the Cabrières sector on sandy soils, the 2022 Les Trois Sources, a blend of 60% Grenache mix-planted with Syrah, Cinsault, Counoise and Mourvèdre, offers aromas of rose, peony, iris, dark cherries and violets. Medium to full-bodied, structured and dense, it’s perfectly balanced with a long, tense and elegant core of fruit and a mineral, delicately bitter finish. More floral than Clavin, it could age over the next decade and over.
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Vinous
The delicious 2022 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Trois Sources is on par with the quality achieved in 2019 and 2020. Glossy red fruits, melted licorice, leafy undertones and crushed violets jump out of the glass. Touching the palate with a juicy core of concentrated fruit and bright acidity, the 2022 neatly captures the necessary freshness required to balance a full-bodied red with over 15% alcohol. Structured and refined, it will start showing at its best from 2027 onwards.
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.