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Among the greats of modern wine; that is the glitzy, and glamorous, and the romantic wine producing regions of the world, there have always been the Burgundies, the Barolos and the Bordeaux - though perhaps more is the most austere and aptly named wine the Popes, that is Châteauneuf-du-Pape jewel of the Southern Rhône. This region isn’t just called Châteauneuf for no reason of course, at one point in its distinctive history it truly was the wine of the popes.
Way back in the middle ages a schism in the church lead to the 1309 Avignon Papacy, which caused, among other scandals, a certain level of skepticism towards church authority which ultimately laid the foundation for the reformation. The former Archbishop of Bordeaux, Pope Clement V, established ecclesiastical authority in a small southeastern French town called Avignon. The principal reason for the move was, of course, a desire to distance the papacy from the politics of Rome, which at the time were not in the new Pope’s favor.
A lover of wine, and specifically the greats of Burgundy, at that, Clement and his court propped up the reputations of France’s most dynamic and exciting wine regions. Despite his obsession with the work of the cistercians to the north, transit was often complicated at the time, and the latter Popes demanded the sultry sustenance be transited from closer to home. The local wine industry around Avignon at the time was dominated by small, peasant workers, who, emboldened by sudden demand, and the flow of capital from the Papal estate, began to plant new vines, and service the needs of the church.
Under Pope John XXII, extensive reinvigoration and modernization of the winemaking techniques prevailed, so much so, that the term Vin du Pape, wine of the pope, was coined to describe the wines grown in the New Castle area, making them distinctively more Burgundian as a consequence. Better plots were selected, aspects mulled over, and parcels delineated with cunning bravado. Though the Avignon papacy only lasted seventy years, the legacy of the wines made here still precedes their extremely long name.
However, despite any schism, it’s worth mentioning the sheer beauty of this area in southern France. Valleys of purple lavender, canvasable red dirt, soft round stones, rolling hills of steppe, and herbal-scented breezes make it one of the most beautiful and serene places on Earth. It’s a region that has managed to inspire entertainers, entrepreneurs, and artists alike through its centuries of development and arable fortunes.
One such blend of regional varietals and plots is Domaine Pegau’s Cuvée Reservé. This wine demonstrates the incredible intensity of Grenache. Like most Châteauneuf wines, the cuvée is dominated by Grenache, which imprints own the blend a rich concentration of alcohol. The tannin is ethereally brutish, but softens in the bottle with time, becoming silky and unobtrusive. The redcurrant, and fresh red cherry flavor is bold and dramatic with wafting nuances of prosciutto and leather, tinged with a hint of tarragon. This bold, complex wine is very characteristic of this dynamic region.
The region managed to stay relevant to even the high-brow production houses of Burgundy, because prior to WWI, the effects of a chillier earth left a lot of these growers in need of Vin de Médecin, a sort of dark, rich concoction that served to strengthen Burgundian wines. This is also known to have been done to weak Bordeaux wines of the same era - in bad years, barrels of the darker, richer wines made north of Avignon found their way into Bordeaux. Grenache, the principal grape used in Châteauneuf, can make for a tough nut to crack during the winemaking process, especially when it is expected to thicken lighter wines of other regions, its thin skins and cherry flavor don’t exactly conjure ideas of a rich wine.
But what Grenache lacks in intensity and color, it makes up for in aroma, alcohol, and possibility. Growers here began at the turn of the century macerating Grenache on the skins for weeks on end to extract as much color as possible, which worked, as Grenache is a thin skinned grape, with a noticeable lack of sharable tannin. A long maceration would make little difference in the harshness of the wines overall if they were let on the skins. Furthermore, the freedom allowed by a lack of formal appellation rules also played into the grower’s ability to produce incredible new wines.
The freedoms given the area during its developmental phases throughout the era prior to the great wars led to successes, and blunders, one of which was the massive amounts of wine fraud committed against the town. Fake wines from France’s Languedoc wine river were sold off as real Châteauneuf, fooling consumers, and sullying the name, This lead to a series of laws introduced appointing appellation to the commune’s various wine producing sites in 1923, eventually culminating in the establishment of France’s first AOC in 1936, codifying the rules of the region into the law of the land.
One of the more interesting abilities that Châteauneuf producers are blessed with, is flexibility of cépage. The region allows for nearly every arable local grape varietal to be used in the blend at any ratio. This means that these Rhône wines can kick the palette in all different directions when tasting. They can be crisp and fruity with high alcohol, like Grenache, or deeply-colored, juicy, and peppery like Syrah, or even racy, animalistic, and rich like Mourvèdre. What started out as ten common blending varietals, has over the the years been worked up to thirteen, and in recent years, eighteen.
In red wines, which make up ninety-three percent of the wine produced here, it is possible to use all eighteen varietals currently allowed, including the white ones, though this practice is almost never done. Red varietals allowed are Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Muscardin, Piquepoul noir, Vaccarèse, Terret noir, and, the delightfully blue-fruited Counoise. Grenache is the most widely planted varietal, representing a whopping 72% of the regions vines, practically all of which are Grenache-driven, the next two varietals on the list makeup 11%, and 8% respectively, though they are gaining plantings slowly, especially towards the areas of Orange.
White wines are aptly made from local varietals including only, Roussanne, Grenache blanc, Piquepoul, Bourboulenc, Clairette blanche, Clairette rose, Grenache gris, Picardan, and the aromatic, spicy, Piquepoul gris. White wines from the area are honeyed and slightly richer, with aromatic floral characteristics and a nice mushroom-like earthiness that is organic, and laced throughout the finish. Anise, saline, mango; lavender, honey and white Lilly are all common descriptors.
If you’re ever in search of an incredible white wine from this appellation, look no further than the legendary Château de Beaucastel, who produces a very nice Roussane-based white that sings of vivacious floral esters and honeyed chamomile. This weightier white curtain calls with an opus of ripe yellow pear, peach, and clementine that fills the palette, and points towards embers and hints of the wild rosemary, and thyme grown here. The mid palette is funky, and chalky, with minerality, and texture reminiscent of goat cheese. While rich for a white wine, it retains nice acidity keeping the balance light and buoyant, and lacking gross flabiness. A Well made delight from the owners of Tablas Creek.
There is but one word suitable enough to sum up of the authentic aura of this incredible area of the world, and that is the French word, Garrigue. Much like terroir, this word can mean many things, as its formal translation would infer something along the lines of herbal steppe, and, shrubbery, and weeds. In France it is used to describe the plant life native to this area, acacia, almond trees; wild rosemary, thyme, and tarragon; parcels of mint, and lavender; chamomile, and olives. Garrigue is a word that paints a vivid picture synonymous with southern France, rather than just a simple descriptor.
Châteauneuf is a land of what one could consider variable terroir. Each and every general area from Bédarrides in the east, to Orange in the north, has a slightly different and varying soil type. Traditionally, as within other areas, houses would often blend together the local cépages, and create blended wines from varying parcels. Today, not much has changed. Different producers will have landholdings across the town that more suited to specific grape type.
For a very consistent and reasonably priced ideation of Chateauneuf, look no further than Ogier’s Clos de L’Oratoire des Papes. These wines sing when young, but do best with a bit of age, say three or four years. With a vast plethora of consistent vintages, it’s a wonder why this wine is not more widely celebrated. The flavors are intricate, and unique, one noticeable factor I this wine is an inorganic minerality of drying cement, which I think is a beautiful complexity and personally really love. Upon opening the bottle wafting fresh red cherry and anise are noticeable, followed by an incredible black pepper essence and cinnamon. Upon tasting, one is greeted by similar aromatic of lavender and cedar, as well as a nice black fruit and leather characteristic. On the finish, there’s a bit of potpourri and red apple, to compliment the cherry fruit.
Clos de L’Oratoire des Papes has been around since eighteen eighty, and has used the same striking red and green bottle design since 1926. I love a beautiful looking old bottle, it draws my attention like a good book cover. The Châteauneuf wine growing region in particular is known for these beautiful, timeless, often art-deco bottles, and all of the wines mentioned have their own unique signature look that have remained relatively unchanged for decades.
The thirty-one hundred hectare AOC area encompasses several different towns within the commune of Vaucluse. There are a whopping three hundred and twenty grape growers, only a handful of which sell their grapes, the rest are domaine bottling. The practice of domain bottling has been fairly lucrative for quite some time for this particular set of estates. Soils are the talk of the town, and the pride on which all of the AOC’s growers lay their hat. There are multiple varying terroirs across this small territory, and all of them gift the grapes of the blend and the wines with different aromas and varying levels of acidity. In Chateauneauf, each grower is truly given the adequate amount of freedom to make the wine that he enjoys drinking.
Of the varying soils under vine, several stand out as the most common and propitious. Below is a useful map that will help you decipher the varying soils, and perhaps recognize some of their affects on the wines produced here. Listed also in italics are some landholdings and operational hubs for the more noteworthy winemakers in the appellation. The altitude here is not incredibly deferent, though the majority of higher plots lie somewhere around one hundred and twenty meters, which is nothing to scoff at, especially when considering the force of the ripping Mistral wind that has been known to carry men from these high vineyards and dash them upon the banks of the river like spilled wine - same for vines, at any rate.
The wind carries away wistful moisture left from sullen days of slow air on the riverbed, and blow it out into the Mediterranean, keeping the grapes both cool, and free from mold during the summer. Lagging humidity can cause problems fro the crop, but is a rarity. Both the cooling impacts of the Mistral, and chilly diurnal shift in the evenings can leave fruit under-ripe. Even the most minor changes in aspect and soil variation can be detrimental to the harvest. Thicker-skinned-later ripening varietals need to be planted on south-facing slopes. Planting early-ripeners like Grenache here can be detrimentsl, resulting in overripe, jammy and uncharacteristic wines. The toughest ripeners, like Mourvèdre, will end up on southern slopes accompanied by the famous Galets Roulés.
Galets Roulés are rounded stones made only of silica and quartz. These small reflective stones serve several purposes. The first is their weight keeps roots grounded when winds begin to blow in from the north. They also retain heat in the evenings keeping the grounds warm in the cooler evenings. They ripen the skins of grapes by reflecting light via the shiny river-polished quartz, which refracts light onto the grapes under the hot sun. Under these rocks lies a bed of red dirt, rich in iron, and alluvial clays that retain moisture for the roots. These soils are said to increase sap in the vines, making for richer, more concentrated fruit.
La Crau is a famous vineyard centered around this area of concentrated Galet Roulée. The plot is majority held by Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe, a winery which produces their signature red wine from only this plot, using a blend of 65% Grenache, 15% Mourvèdre, 10% Consult, and 10% Syrah. While generally in Châteauneuf, desteming is not common, as it can break the precious skins of Grenache and prematurely kickstart fermentation, This winery destems nearly sixty percent of their harvest, leading to fewer green flavors and less harsh tannin overall. The results pay off. This is one of the few family-owned, well known wineries making a consistency good, arable product at an affordable price. Buy one of the stellar recent vintages of this wine, and wait only a few short years for it to come into its own in the bottle.
La Crau is rich with red fruit being primarily Grenache, but also displays some darker characteristics of blackcurrant, and tainted leather. There are tempered complexities of fennel, espresso and dried game. You will also notice bouts of black truffle and fresh thyme as well. There’s a lavender essence which compliments the plummy-lush tannin as well. The wine is loads of complex and intricately woven into expressions of all sorts. It’s an incredible example of the fine wine that this region is capable of producing.
Sand and Sandstone, or Safre surround the area of Courthézon. These well draining, nutrient-low soils produce wines from vines that struggle to acquire nutrients from the soil. Grenache is primarily grown in these soils, but other varietals are as well. The lower sap content and poor access to water means that roots in these soils are extremely deep, and the wines are richly colored and full flavor. Safre is a type of broken sandstone that is easy cut apart by vine’s roots. Wines grown here are know to have enveloping, soft tannin and incredible elegance.
Red soil can be found under the Galet Roulé , but also on its own in the surrounding area, offering the vines less of a period of intense ripening. The iron-rich clay allow roots to settle in and cool off in the moisture which is retained in the soil. People often say that these iron-rich clays offer up the best aromatics, and that they are truly where the decadent aromatics of the region can be found. Syrah is the prime candidate for these temperature-moderating soils.
Red Limestone Marl is found near the west of the region. These stones were often used to build houses in the region In ancient times, and it is possible to see hundreds of local area houses that are constructed from this particular type of rock. Vines can easily cut through these brittle stones and dig deeper to find water, which is a good thing, seeing as well-draining sandy calcareous marl is contained underneath the red stones. The undersells do retain some moisture, but levels are nowhere near that of the red dirt below the galet roulé. These soils are nearly totally reserved for white grapes, as they produce wines of affable minerality.
Hard Limestone Slabs create intense struggle for the vines. It’s an all-day battle for the misfortunate varietals laden to these sites - though these are some of the best sites for fine wine production in the region. These soils are used for Grenache primarily, but also some white wine grapes as well. The undersoil, once penetrable, is a mix of iron-oxide-rich clays. The weather table is venerably low, and vines planted here need years to break into this stone to reach water. The wines made from grapes planted here have a nice mineral core.
That's all,
~K