Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge 2020

This red Châteauneuf-du-Pape comes from Château La Nerthe, one of the oldest estates in the appellation, located south of the village, in the southern Rhône Valley. Its vines take root in varied soils of clay-limestone, sandy clay and sandstone, scattered with the famous rounded pebbles (galets roulés) that release the day’s heat at night. The Mediterranean climate, swept by the mistral, yields healthy, concentrated grapes.

The grapes, picked by hand, are sorted on a table and then macerated for nearly four weeks, in truncated-cone and stainless-steel vats, with regular pumping over and punching down. Malolactic fermentation takes place in wooden vats. Ageing then lasts twelve months in different vessels: 35% in large oak vats (foudres), 40% in truncated-cone vats and 25% in barriques, new and used, before blending and bottling six months later.

This wine reveals notes of ripe cherry, red fruit, plum, liquorice, aniseed, menthol, sweet spices and garrigue. Beneath a garnet colour with violet glints, the nose blends ripe fruit and herbaceous nuances. The palate is silky, round and pulpy, with present yet supple tannins, and a fresh finish with herbal notes.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.