Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc 2017
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Blend: 40% Grenache Blanc, 30% Clairette, 30% Roussanne
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 40% Grenache Blanc, 30% Clairette and 30% Roussanne, the 2017 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc was bottled just a month before my visit. The Clairette and Roussanne mature in demi-muids, which gives this wine a round, expansive mouthfeel and rich texture. The ripe tangerine flavors gain focus on the long finish, picking up hints of citrus zest and brine, leaving behind a mouthwatering lasting sensation of freshness.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc includes slightly more Clairette and less Grenache than normal, all due to the difficulty in the yields of Grenache in 2017. Bottled in May, it offers a purity and elegance that’s hard to find as well as notes of white flowers, white peach, honeysuckle, and spice. With subtle minerality, medium to full body, and nicely integrated acidity, it’s a classic white from Janasse that will keep for two decades or more.
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Wine Spectator
Inviting, with a plump and open feel to the mix of white peach, pineapple and yellow apple flavors. Reveals a honeysuckle echo through the creamy, lightly buttered finish. Drink now through 2020. 50 cases imported.
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James Suckling
Sandy soils here, delivering fresh peach and banana notes. Some gentle, tropical fruit, too. The palate is bright and crisp with nicely cut, melon and peach flavors. Clairette has taken a bigger role in 2017, ahead of the 30 per cent roussanne and 30 per cent grenache blanc.
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Domaine de la Janasse has quickly become one of the Superstar estates of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Led by the dynamic Christophe Sabon, the estate combines the best of both traditional and modern techniques to craft a collection of truly riveting wines from “simple” value-priced VDP’s to benchmark Chateauneufs.
The estate was founded in 1976 by Aimé Sabon, Christophe’s father, who still oversees the vineyards and farms organically. The property consists of 40 Hectares, spread over as many as 70 different parcels throughout the appellation.
While Aime works in the vineyards, his son, Christophe Sabon, is in charge of wine production. Christophe is a self-proclaimed “great defender of Grenache,” which still represents 75% of their vines. He manages the common rusticity of Grenache-based wines through meticulous work in the vineyards and cellar. The result is a wide range of lavishly ripe, extracted Chateauneuf-du-Papes and Cotes-du-Rhônes that are complex and yet balanced with acidity -- often in contradiction to an appellation better known for sheer exuberance and power. As Robert Parker points out: “The young and talented Christophe Sabon continues to display the sure-handed touch of a veteran winemaker”.
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.
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.