Chateauneuf du Pape Wine and History

While the front door opens on the Art Gallery, a secret room located in the basement offers the freshness and enough humidity to aged wines. Enter in a XVth century cellar, under the famous Chateauneuf du Pape castle, here the candlelights offer the perfect ambiance to understand and taste the famous wine. Enter in the legend…

In 1308, Pope Clement V, former Arbishop of Bordeaux, relocated the papacy to the town of Avignon. Chateauneuf became the summer residence of the Popes. A the top of the village discover the ruins of the Castle.

The appellation rules AOC

Chateauneuf du Pape can be either red or white wine, but the large majority of the wines produced are red. Wine is traditionally packaged in distinctive heavy dark glassware embossed with papal insignia.

The most reknowned appellation of the Southern part of the Rhone Valley is regulated by AOC, Appellation d’Origine Controlée, with allowance to use 13 different grapes and minimum alcohol level of the wines and limits on yields as well as which types of grapes could be grown in which areas, and more… the result is a unique and exclusive wine AOC Chateauneuf du Pape.

It covers 3200 hectares of land with at least 4 distinct types of soil or terroirs. In the north and north east, the famous Galets Roulés, round rocks or pebbles, cover the clay soil and the last one is sandy soil where we make the elegant and finest Chateauneuf du Pape.

The rocks are famous for retaining the heat from the sun, releasing it at night, ripening the grapes faster than in the eastern part of the appellation, where the soil os mostly sand orthe south where the soi lis more gritty.The powerful Mistral, north wind coming through the Rhone Valley, carries away the moisture, intensifying the dry climate.