Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesReally impressive. Lemon, grilled peaches and green mangoes with chamomile and wild, mountain herbs in abundance. The palate is beautifully textured and packed with flavor. Strong and focused.
Invigorating aromas of tangerine and lemon zest introduce this luminously fresh, fruity white blend. The palate offers boldly concentrated flavors of yellow peach and mango nuanced by hints of nut, toast and spice. Crisp acidity and a murmur of tannin edge the finish.
This estate consistently makes one of the top whites in the appellation, and the 2017 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc lives up to the hype. Offering a rocking bouquet of white peach, citrus blossom, and crushed rocks, it’s elegant and tight, yet concentrated and balanced.
Winemaker Ralph Garcin vinifies the roussanne for this wine in 228-liter barrels and ages it on the lees, accounting for 30 percent of the blend; the rest of the wine (grenache blanc, clairette and bourboulenc) ferments in stainless-steel tanks. The result is a layered blend, its plump white fruit streamlined by a grapefruit acidity, with bass notes of mango and toasted oak adding depth. Firm, smoky and rich.
Smooth, dense, and luxurious with ripe aromas; a lovely, perfectly balanced Rhone blend of Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Clairette and Bourboulenc from one of the best producers in the region.
Bright and engaging, with floral lift throughout, allowing white peach, yellow apple, green plum and fennel notes to race along while showing definition and length. Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Clairette and Bourboulenc. Drink now through 2020. 1,845
Reassuringly on form, the 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc offers harmonious citrus notes of tangerine and lime, all carried by a medium to full-bodied palate that's silky, briny and zesty, showing great freshness and length.
Archives affirm Chateau La Nerthe’s existence as early as 1560, while suggesting an even more distant past dating to the dawn of the region’s wine culture in the 12th century making it one of Chateauneuf’s oldest estates. Located in the heart of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape AOC region of southern France not far from Avignon, the 225 acres of Chateau La Nerthe vineyards are located in a single block around the Chateau and have been certified Organic since 1998. The terroir is very typical for the region: vineyards runs along a slope, at the top of which the vines dig their roots into soils of sandy-clay, on the surface there is a layer of the famous galettes, large, round, well-worn stones that originated in the Alps, having been carried down to the Rhône by the glaciers of previous ice ages. The further down the slope of the vineyard you travel, the more these stones dominate. All 14 of the permitted primary varietals are planted-Grenache dominates 62% of vineyards and the vines average over 40 years old. Chateau La Nerthe is the prime expression of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
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.
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.