Winemaker Notes
Ruby color with a violet sheen. Marked by its terroir on the nose with spices, black pepper, lavender, black cherries and blackberries. Elegant, well-balanced, full-bodied, and powerful with persistent notes of red fruit and garrigue. This wine offers a great tasting pleasure.
Enjoy with braised meat with black olives, beef tartare with bearnaise sauce, foil truffle foie gras, or chocolate cake.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Perfumy and high-toned, with beautiful dried rose petal, anise, cherry and raspberry coulis flavors. Broad on the palate, with subtle chewiness adding textural intrigue and toasted alder echoing on the well-meshed finish. Ripe and generous for the vintage. Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. Drink now through 2032. 1,200 cases made, 500 cases imported.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Brotte Châteauneuf-du-Pape Domaine Barville is showy and well-balanced. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits aromas and flavors of fragrant and savory spices, as well as dark berries. Enjoy this with a garlic and rosemary-infused roast leg of lamb. (Tasted: June 13, 2024, 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.