Winemaker Notes
The color is a beautiful ruby shine. The nose expresses a character asserted, chocolate and smoked on a background of red and black fruits light peppery spice. The notes of ginger and menthol offer up a beautiful freshness. On the palate, this wine is expressive, focused on freshness and minerality. It has a beautiful length on fruit and spices.
Blend: 80% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 5% Mourvèdre
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A very complete, classic, incredibly polished effort, the 2023 Châteauneuf Du Pape delivers sweet red berries, pepper, garrigue, and exotic flower notes. Based on 80% Grenache, 15% Syrah, and 5% Mourvèdre and aged eight months in a mix of foudre, stainless steel tanks, and concrete, it's medium-bodied, has fine tannins, a beautiful sense of freshness, and outstanding length.
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James Suckling
A fruity, mellow and juicy red with strawberries, crushed raspberries and baking spices on the nose. Full-bodied with velvety tannins, juicy berries and a kick of spice on the finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2023 Domaine du Père Caboche Châteauneuf-du-Pape shows a light ruby hue and opens with aromas of sweet earth, tree bark, and a hint of chalk. On the palate, it delivers impressive power, layered with flavors of early-summer blackberries. This wine finds an excellent partner in braised Korean short ribs (galbi jjim), slowly simmered with soy, garlic, ginger, star anise, and a touch of red chili, where the wine’s depth and dark fruit beautifully complement the dish’s aromatic spice and savory richness. (Tasted: August 27, 2025, San Francisco, CA)
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.