Southern Côtes du Rhône

Southern Côtes du Rhône

Powerful, greedy, sunny, the red wines of the region offer a diverse palette. More than 20 red and white grape varieties cohabit here. With Roussillon, Grenache has found its most favourable area of expression. It produces wines that are full-bodied, generous, richly textured but which, when they are well born, manage to retain their freshness. They age ideally.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

The geological formation of the Castelpapal vineyards is the result of various upheavals dating back to the secondary and tertiary eras. Thus we find here terroirs corresponding to distinct geological formations. At least five can be distinguished:

• The rolled pebbles on red clays, such as found on the famous Crau plateau ;
• The sandy areas which are generally found on the breaks in the plateaux. These are atypical terroirs, like Rayas, but where Grenache acquires a sacred finesse ;
• Rolled pebbles on blue clay subsoil, totally impermeable ;
• A gravelly-silty zone located towards the Sorgues part, south of the appellation ;
• Limestone outcrops found in several places in the appellation.

Whether it comes from a single type of terroir or a blend, a great Châteauneuf is a wine that combines power and elegance, with great ageing potential, and which over the years transforms its youthful richness and opulence into a remarkably fine and complex wine.

Around the dentelles de Montmirail

About the Ventoux, not to say on its foothills, some excellent communal crus (Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Rasteau, Cairanne, Vinsobres, Beaumes-de-Venise) rub shoulders with Côtes-du-Rhône bearing the names of their villages and which are distinguished by their diversity and for the best of them a strong character and interesting ageing potential, notably Séguret, Sablet. We confess to having a weakness for the region's greatest altitude terroirs, marked by the seal of freshness and often also of limestone, such as Gigondas, Beaumes-de-Venise and even certain sectors in the Côtes-du-Ventoux appellations.