The Estate

The Royer family owns 5 hectares of vineyards in Châteauneuf du Pape stretching back to the 1800s, but historically always sold their grapes to negociants and rented out their vines. This changed in 1985, when former rugby player Jean Marie Royer finished his oenology studies and returned to the estate to take charge and started bottling wines under his own name. The wines produced here are always amongst the more elegant samples of Châteauneuf du Pape, dominated by ripe elegant red fruit and more Burgundian in style, with Grenache being the dominating grape in the Southern Rhône blend.

With ownership dating back to the 1800s, vines here have an old age of up to 100 years old.

Viticulture and Vinification

The vineyards are farmed sustainably here, and the vinification is geared towards making wines with finesse and elegance. The tank is kept cold at the start of a slow and long fermentation, with temperature allowed to increase gradually to retain aromatics. Depending on the cuvée and vintage, the grapes are 50-90% destemmed and aged in a mixture of new oak and demi-muid, the traditionally 600-litre oak barrels used in the Rhône Valley.

Wines Produced

Tradition

Prestige

Les Sables de la Crau

Triplice

Critical Praise

“These wines always lean towards the more elegant, finesse-driven end of the spectrum, yet have tons of fruit, sweet tannin and sensational Provençal characters”

Jeb Dunnuck, Robertparker.com

“Wine lovers who decry what they perceive to be a movement toward “modern” rich and weighty wines in the region are enthusiastically advised to check out these wines, which also offer superb bang for the buck. There’s more than a passing resemblance to Burgundy here, and really good Burgundy at that.”

Josh Raynolds, Vinous.com

GENERAL INFORMATION

Country:  France

Region:  Rhone

Appellation:  Châteauneuf du Pape

Founded:  1985

Annual Production: 1,500 cases

Farming: Sustainable