Winemaker Notes
Blend: 75% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre, 5% Cinsault
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
A smoky style that’s a touch herbal and meaty. Towards full-bodied, with good weight and texture. Quite a saline expression, ending on crisp raspberry acidity and quite strict tannins. Will always be a lean style, but should make interesting old bones.
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James Suckling
This generous and well-structured 2021 Chateauneuf has excellent raspberry and strawberry aromas for the challenging vintage, plus notes of floral aromas. Surprisingly fine tannins, too. Still very youthful and in need of a bit of time in bottle to reach ideal harmony, but the freshness at the finish is already delightful. A cuvee 75% grenache, 10% syrah, 10% mourvedre and 5% cinsault that were co-fermented, then matured in foudre. Drinkable now, but best from 2024.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Châteauneuf Du Pape is a solid effort in the vintage. A normal blend of mostly Grenache with 10% each of Syrah and Mourvèdre, with a splash of Cinsault, it has a beautiful perfume of ripe cherries, fresh strawberries, sappy green flowers, and peppery garrigue. This carries to a medium-bodied, layered, elegant Châteauneuf with fine tannins, a beautiful overall sense of balance, and outstanding length. It shows the fresh, pretty, nuanced style of the vintage and is a beautiful wine to enjoy over the coming decade. It's in the same ballpark as the 2008.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A classic blend of 75% Grenache, 10% each Mourvèdre and Syrah and 5% Cinsault, the 2021 Chateauneuf du Pape is a charming, easy-drinking effort. Marked by scents of cherries and garrigue, it's medium to full-bodied, silky, fine and classic but not great, with just a hint of dark chocolate on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
This offers real aromatic beauty, with incense, violets and red currant flavors melded with a layer of finely crushed graphite. Chalk-fine tannins guide the medium-length finish, adding nice chewiness. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault. Drink now through 2032.
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Vinous
The 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a refined and predominately red-fruited beauty. Licorice and herbaceous components add more dimension. Framed by gentle tannins and more medium- than full-bodied, the 2021 ends with a bright finish.
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.