Winemaker Notes
The 2019 Renaissance From Roger Sabon shows distinct aromas of tropical fruit, peach, and ripe pear with a dense, creamy mouthfeel before finishing fresh with echoing flavors of tropical fruit, sweet citrus and a pleasant almond skin finish. This wine is made from the 1 hectare of white varieties that the estate has scattered in their various parcels with sandier and calcareous soils. Each variety is harvested by hand and pressed into a 25HL oak vat for fermentation by indigenous yeasts, after primary fermentation it remains in the same vat until bottling in April after the harvest.
Blend: 35% Roussanne, 30% Grenache Blanc, 20% Clairette, 15% Bourboulenc
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Rich but refined, rather than showy, with a creamy-edged mix of white peach and yellow apple fruit entwined with chamomile, honeysuckle and acacia notes. Finish is sneakily long. Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Clairette and Bourboulenc.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Despite exhibiting a certain honeyed richness, the 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape Renaissance Blanc finishes clean and refreshing. It's a delicate balance to strike in a warm year, but this is full-bodied and opulent without being overbearing, overflowing with notes of ripe pear and melon, but also elements suggestive of lemon and fennel fronds.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The light gold 2019 Châteauneuf Du Pape Renaissance Blanc from this great estate plays in the more medium-bodied, elegant end of the spectrum yet shows more richness and depth on the palate. Lively, exotic notes of tropical fruits, flowers, and honeyed spices all dominate the bouquet, and it has solid balance on the palate as well as length. I don’t think its going to be the longest-lived white out there, but it should certainly evolve nicely for 3-4 years, possibly a little bit longer.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
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.