Here we are on the papal vines between Avignon and Montélimar. So some appellations are very known like Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Tavel, Lirac or Gigondas, others less famous like Cairanne or Vacqueyras deserve their discovery.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Tavel, Lirac, Cairanne, Rasteau, Sablet, Gigondas, Vacqueyras et Beaumes-de-Venise : nine villages often high perched with the narrow lanes and the shaded small squares. It is a round of charm in the heart of an ocean of vines, with the meeting of the Côtes-du-Rhône wines that I suggest you to compose yourself among these vintages.

* see fares and conditions

CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE

"Honor to the largest and the most famous vineyard. It is called "the wine of the kings and the king of the wines".

The sight of these vine stocks planted one meter from each other on heated repples, shaken by the Mistral (wind), deafened by the cicadas, bathed by the perfume of the garigue, helps to realize how much this vineyard is exceptional!

The wines are exceptional too, wines of a plenitude, a magnificence, an incomparable richness which, in sumptuous velvety, quickly make you forget the 15 ° of this nectar.

The wines are subdivided in two types: one traditional, vigorous, crimson, very rich in alcohol, with great guard related to a relatively long traditional maceration. The other, obtained by carbonic maceration, are fruitier but lighter and with a less conservation time.

Le domaine de la Charbonnière, for example, proposes the white Châteauneuf (19,50 €), an over Medal-holder wine. The reds are worth from 14,30 € to 21,35 € for the old vines and the High vintage Brusquières.

 

TAVEL

It gets the extremely envied title of the best rosy wine of France, also why not one of the best rosy wine of the world ?

The list of the amateurs of this wine is long that it records men of letters like Honore de Balzac, kings (Philippe le Bel for example) or popes.

If the exceptional quality of Tavel is due to the nature of its ground, it also owes it to the nine type of vines which make it up, bringing its clear ruby dress with the topaz reflections, its power and the gouleyant side which is characteristic. The grenache is dominating, the other type of vines are bourboulenc, calitor, carignan, cinsault, clairette, picpoul, syrah and mourvèdre.

When it is perfect i.e. virile, generous, with pink dress and bouquet at the same time flowered and peppered, Tavel is affirmed like a high-class wine.

To drink young between 8 and 10°.

 

 

LIRAC

From 3 kilometers of Tavel, the Tavel vineyards overflow largely on the commune of Lirac.

This appellation covers three types of wines:

• rosy wines very closed to Tavel are frank, flexible, fruity and very typified but however less fleshy,
• the reds are powerful, generous with a very marked bouquet, and
• A rarity, a white of clairette, fine wine with exquisite perfume.

 

 

CAIRANNE

It is almost the view-point of theSouther Côtes-du-Rhône. The top of the village, dominates Alpilles rocks, the mounts of Gard and Ventoux. The vine invades the slopes and extends on the garigues, a plain of small rebble and red clay.

You will find there demanding and spreading wines which are reflecting the truth of the soil and the originality of the millésime. Whites (12 €), superb reds such as Cairanne 2000 (8 €) or the vintage Ebrescade 2000 (14 €), a silky wine with the very fine tannins concerned with the notes of crystallized oranges, figs, violet with a remarkable persistence in mouth. To also discover the vintage Garrigues 2001, confusing of simplicity and complexity.

 

 

RASTEAU

The village with three bell-towers appears from an ocean of vines. From the church Saint-Didier, the glance carries far to the Ventoux Mount which points its "bald cranium". Rasteau gives its name to a "Côte-du-Rhône villages" appellation, but also to a sweet and natural wine obtained by the mutage of musts in alcohol. Fermentation can be done with or without pulp, then giving sweet aperitif wines red or gilded to preserve five to ten years.

Rasteau "cuvée prestige 2000", to discover in an ultramodern cellar, is a magic wine, a splendour of grenache not to be taste by everybody so much it confines to pleasure. To also discover, Rasteau Villages 2000 (7 €), of an insane elegance, with the flavours of blackberry and violet.

 

 

SABLET et SEGURET

Rolled up around its bell-tower, protected by its ramparts from the 14th century, with its narrow and shaded lanes punctuated of fountains, Sablet has an insane charm. Its more beautiful atours have to be seen from the road of Séguret, another village of the Côtes-du-Rhône wines, one of most beautiful of France, placed in corbelling on the side of a rock face from which it seems to slope down in abseiling.

Le domaine du Pourra, for example, proposes an Séguret white 2000, "cuvée Combe" (7 €), white assembly of grenache and clairette with a pale yellow dress and notes of pineapple, quince and white flowers, very sharp in mouth. The séguret red wine Mont-Bayon is a wine elegant, original, with the flavours of leather and blackcurrant.

 

 

GIGONDAS

From here, the panorama on the vineyard and Cévènnes mountains is imposing. The lanes climb to the bell-tower, revealing les Dentelles de Montmirail, bars of Jurassic limestone. In the hollow of the slopes, large vine stocks seem to twist of pain.

Gigondas is the other great appellation of left bank of the Rhone river. The vineyards spread over old olive groves were initially classified in "Côte-du-Rhone" appelation, then in 1966 in "Côte-du-Rhone Villages" and, finally, entered in 1971 in the very closed club of the AOC. Vine, very closed to that of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, is dominated by the black grenache, the syrah, the mourvèdre and the cinsault. The production is, in majority part, made up of powerful, constructed red wines with a large aromatic smoothness.

they still work with old methods. In the cellar, a 70 years old press and concrete tanks. Gigondas 2001 (11,70 €) is silky, balanced, with the tightened tannins, having spiced, peppered notes and a final on very long liquorice. A superb wine to await three or four years before tasting.

 

 

VACQUEYRAS

The wine is not the only glory of Vacqueyras. A pretty fountain, in the village entrance, recalls the exploits of Rimbaut de Vacqueyras, troubadour and juggler of the court of prince d' Orange. Famous hosts, Sarah Bernhardt and Frederic Mistral came here during the 19th century to have "bath", which the pleasure, one says, of good glassfuls of the local wine already of good reputation.

From the latin name Vallea Quadreria, the stone valley, AOC since 1990, Vacqueyras gives primarily red wines (95%) produced in two communes of Vaucluse: Vacqueyras and Sarrians. The grenache dominates the red wines with more than 50%, syrah, mourvèdre and cinsault shares other half. Wines are powerful constructed, suited to ageing (10 years), with a nose of kirsh and spices.

The domaine de Monardière, house with blue shutters, surrounded of plane trees and olive-trees, form a small island in the midle of the vines. The red "Réserve des 2 Monardes", is a vacqueyras 2001 (9,20 €) with the powerful tannins but fine opening on notes of liquorice and fruits black, has a very beautiful potential of guard.

 

 

BEAUMES-DE-VENISE

On the buttresses of Dentelles de Montmirail, many caves - "les baumes" - gave it its name. "Venise" is only one deterioration of the word "Venaissin". No canals, no gondoles in Beaumes-of-Venise but beautiful cypresses which confer an air of Tuscan in Italy.

The originality of the vineyard, is the muscatel grape with small grains. Gathered very ripe, sugar concentrate, dried by the sun and the mistral, it gives a liqueur-like wine with the charm comparable to the famous sauternes. This excellent muscatel, with the pale dress yellow-but, offers an exceptional flavour of fresh grape and ripe fishing.

Right before arriving at Beaumes-de-Venise village, a short visit of the Romance vault Notre-Dame d'Aubune surmounted by a square bell-tower. But it is in the heart of the village, beside the Sainte-Anne vault, that the field of Bernardins works out wines since five generations. The 2001 (9,5 €) are concentrated with honey notes. A true nectar, round and dense in mouth with a persistent final on crystallized notes and of orange bark.