Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Secrets De Pignan is all Grenache and comes from an incredible terroir just beside Rayas. Brought up entirely in stainless steel, it offers a deeper ruby/plum color as well as fabulous notes of black raspberries, Morello cherries, sandalwood, Provençal garrigue, and dried flowers. It brings beautiful depth of fruit on the palate, has full-bodied richness, sweet tannins, and a great finish. It's another brilliant 2020 that readers will love to drink any time over the coming 15 years or more.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Decanter
Fine, fresh and herbal with expressive black cherry, liquorice and violets. Full-bodied, gummy and ripe in fruit, but the acidity and plentiful tannin help to keep everything moving and focused. An exceptional, long expression of pure Grenache on sand, it has the fine tannins and elegant structure you'd hope for, alongside great freshness and balance. Its longevity isn't easy to predict, but it's hard to resist drinking now anyway. From a south-facing vineyard planted in 1920 in lieu-dit Pignan, fermented and then matured in stainless steel for 18 months. 6,000 bottles made.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
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.