Winemaker Notes
Les Hauts des Côteaux is the top cuvée from Cellier des Princes which is produced only the best years. To make this cuvée, hillside plots are selected as well as most of the oldest vines. Les Hauts des Coteaux is a special wine made from 60 years old vines located in the estate's best hillsides with low yields to obtain maximum concentration. As the harvest is carefully sorted and hand-picked at high maturity to ensure the final wine has a complex structure. It is aged in oak barrels for 12 months (1/3 new) to enhance the aromas of vanilla and licorice. The tannins are very smooth and silky and the long finish is spicy and elegant.
Blend: 90% Grenache, 5% Syrah, 5% Mourvèdre
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This Grenache-dominant blend (augmented by 5% each of Syrah and Mourvèdre) drenches the palate with rich, glossy black cherry and blueberry flavors. Matured in 20% new barriques, the wine boasts a midpalate with subtle veins of vanilla and clove, but overall, it's a pure, intensely fruity sip that finishes on fine-grained, intensely gripping tannins. At peak now–2027.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Cellier des Princes Chateauneuf-du-Pape Hauts des Coteaux is persistent and well-balanced on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits aromas and flavors of stone fruits, savory spices, red and black fruits, and forest floor notes. Enjoy it with an old-fashioned beef stew. (Tasted: June 10, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
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Vinous
Limpid ruby. Expansive cherry and black raspberry scents are complemented by suggestions of allspice, garrigue and licorice. Supple and broad on the palate, offering appealingly sweet red and blue fruit preserve, spicecake and floral pastille flavors that betray no rough edges. The blue fruit note carries strongly through the smooth, spice-tinged finish, which shows very good clarity and velvety, slow-building tannins.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Juicy cherries, strawberries, and exotic floral notes dominate the 2017 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Hauts Des Coteaux, which is medium to full-bodied, plump, rounded, beautifully textured, and just a delicious mouthful of fruit. The blend is 90% Grenache and 5% each of Syrah and Mourvèdre, brought up in 20% new oak, with the balance in older barrels and concrete tanks.
Cellier des Princes was founded In 1925 by a group of dedicated winegrowers. 11 years later, these visionary men were involved in the creation of the 1st AOC appellation in France, Chateauneuf du Pape. Prior to 2005, the group of Cellier des Princes sold their grapes to other wineries. In 2005 they started directly bottling their own wines to show the prestige and quality of their historic vineyards. Utilizing traditional methods and modern equipment, the winery makes wines offering the purest expression of each terroir and appellation. Today, Cellier des Princes has become a reference in Rhône Valley and Chateauneuf du Pape, under its own brand, known for its excellent quality at the best price.
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.