Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Domaine Giraud

• Tradition 2023, grenache at the centre: Tradition 2023 is a powerful, grenache-led Châteauneuf-du-Pape with black-cherry notes. Its name expresses Marie and François Giraud’s attachment to their parents’ work and to the appellation.
• A distillery becomes a family winery: Pierre and Mireille Giraud converted the family distillery into a winery and made their first vintage in 1981. Their children Marie and François took over together, continuing the change from distilling to producing estate wine.

Château de Beaucastel - famille Perrin

• Thirteen varieties, separately made and then blended: Beaucastel grows Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s thirteen historic varieties, harvesting and vinifying them separately before blending. In the red 2022, Mourvèdre and Grenache each account for 30%. The wine spends a year in oak foudres. Ripe red fruit, tobacco and undergrowth accompany a broad, silky palate with substantial tannic structure and the capacity for long ageing.
• Coudoulet: a different origin, a softer red: Coudoulet comes from thirty hectares east of Beaucastel in the Côtes du Rhône appellation. It is a separate vineyard wine. The 2022 blends four varieties and spends six months in foudres, against a year for Beaucastel. Fresh red fruit, soft velvety tannins and a rounded palate distinguish its more supple expression.
• Roussanne Vieilles Vignes: a rich, ageworthy white: This separate white is entirely very old Roussanne, picked slightly overripe. The 2023 combines honey and ripe apricot with a rich, silky texture, citrus and a saline finish. It offers the breadth of a powerful white while retaining freshness, and rewards extended bottle ageing.
• A long-standing farming commitment: Jacques Perrin rejected herbicides and synthetic products. The family dates its organic beginnings to 1950 and biodynamics to 1974; Demeter certification followed in 2023.
• A cellar designed around natural cooling: Studio Mumbai and Studio Méditerranée used earth from the estate in Beaucastel’s new cellar. Underground pools and wind towers form part of its natural cooling system, reducing dependence on air conditioning and providing more space for longer maturation.
• A separate Provençal collaboration: For Miraval Rosé, the Perrins partnered with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Provence. Their first vintage, the 2012 Côtes de Provence, ranked 84th in Wine Spectator’s 2013 Top 100. This Provençal collaboration runs alongside Beaucastel’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines.

Domaine Henri Bonneau

• Ageing without a fixed timetable: For his Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines, including « Réserve des Célestins », Henri Bonneau made extended ageing a signature: generally two to four years, sometimes twice as long. He decided on blending and bottling when he considered the wines ready, according to their development.
• Old wood for the wait: This work took place in small cellars beneath the family house, with old foudres, demi-muids and barrels: wooden vessels of different capacities. The duration therefore followed no fixed timetable.

Château Rayas

Southern Rhône · Châteauneuf-du-Pape

• Vines surrounded by woodland: At Rayas, around ten hectares of vines surrounded by woodland stand on very sandy soils. This secluded site gives the Reynaud family a distinctive expression of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
• Everything rests on grenache: The red « Château Rayas » is made entirely from grenache. This choice of a single variety puts the vineyard’s character to the fore.
• An ethereal grenache: The red « Château Rayas » shows delicate aromas and a fine texture. Its depth is accompanied by an ethereal feel and elegance.

Domaine du Pegau

Southern Rhône · Châteauneuf-du-Pape

• Laurence chooses a Provençal jug: In 1987, Laurence Féraud created an independent estate with her parents Paul and Odette. She named it after the pégau, a fourteenth-century Provençal jug, in memory of the region’s papal past.
• Whole bunches and large foudres: « Cuvée Réservée » brings together thirteen varieties, led by grenache. The bunches are vinified with their stems, then the wine spends two years in large oak foudres: choices that continue a traditional approach to Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
• Generous, peppery and scented with garrigue: The red « Cuvée Réservée »: ripe cherry, raspberry, pepper and garrigue, followed by leather and forest floor with age. The palate is generous and powerful, with fine tannins.

Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe

Southern Rhône · Châteauneuf-du-Pape

• La Crau, the family’s stony plateau: Hippolyte Brunier planted the La Crau land his father gave him, although its rounded stones made it difficult to cultivate. Six generations later, the plateau remains central to the family’s red Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
• Vieux Télégraphe 2021, fruit and persistence: The red Vieux Télégraphe 2021 combines redcurrant, dried cherry, pepper and forest floor. Fine, persistent tannins carry a long finish. Its name recalls the optical telegraph station once installed on the same plateau, linking the bottle to the landscape where the vineyard was established.
• La Crau and Télégramme: Vieux Télégraphe red comes from old vines on La Crau and matures for around two years in large oak foudres. Télégramme draws on younger vines and older parcels outside La Crau and Piedlong; its more Grenache-led blend and shorter maturation offer an earlier-drinking expression.