Winemaker Notes
Le Secret des Sabon began as an experimental cuvée which has evolved to be one of the top wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. With only about a single demi-muid produced each year, from presumably old vines with their correspondingly low yields, there isn’t much to go around. It is quite startling to taste Secret after the Cuvée Prestige, as one normally expects the “top” win of the estate to be the biggest, but this is a red herring. While there is an unmistakable glyceryl weight to Le Secret, it is more high-toned than you would initially expect. Red fruit predominates with stony and herbal accents that hint at a long life ahead.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Showing the class of the vintage, the 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape Le Secret Des Sabon reveals beautiful darker berries, meaty black cherries, sandalwood, and peppery garrigue nuances. It's medium to full-bodied, pure, and focused, with ripe, polished tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The full-bodied 2020 Chateauneuf du Pape le Secret de Sabon offers up stunning aromas of roses, raspberries, black cherries, pine sap and garrigue. Silky and elegant, it finishes long and mouthwatering. Almost entirely Grenache from a couple of old-vine parcels on sandier sites than the majority of the domaine's offerings, it's a beautiful wine by any measure.
Barrel Sample: 94-97 -
Decanter
Full-bodied and powerful, but not over the top and with a great sense of freshness. It's expansive, with gently sweet, vibrant black cherry and kirsch notes within soft, pliable fruit tannins and a long finish. A remarkably precise and balanced wine, not the most powerful this year, but one of the most drinkable. Mostly grown on sand, fermented in stainless steel then aged in tronconic wooden vats.
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Vinous
The star of the show from this year's tasting at Domaine Roger Sabon is the 2020 Châteauneuf- du-Pape Le Secret de Sabon. Made from 95% Grenache and other permitted varieties, it opens with enticing aromas of glossy red and black fruits, dried lavender, licorice, crème de cassis, white- pepper, a wide array of exotic spices and a hint of menthol. Expanding vertically on the palate, it shows outstanding complexity and an intricate web of ever-so-velvety tannins. It is a deep wine with stunning precision, showing-off a sapid finish that lasts for well over a minute. Like in 2021, only 3,000 bottles were produced.
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Wine Spectator
Exuberant blackberry and boysenberry flood the palate in this lush, polished red. Shows impressive density, and though ripe and decadent, this has a refreshing beam of iron and menthol notes that bring balance. Offers baked cherry pie, fruitcake and salty black licorice accents that add interesting detail through the powerful, nicely framed 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.