Château La Nerthe Chateauneuf Du Pape Rouge 2020 (France)

Château La Nerthe, Châteauneuf-du-Pape red, is the soul of the estate’s wines. It has been exported across the globe since the eighteenth century. All the plots of grenache noir, syrah, mourvèdre, and cinsault grapes are planted across the different soil types within the wine appellation, making the style of this wine the full expression of the complexity of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It pairs wonderfully with rare meat, Provencal classics, or other elaborate dishes made with sauce.

In 2020 we had good weather announcing a rather exceptional precocity of the vegetative cycle. The low rainfalls throughout the year were enough to allow soils to build up a water reserve and cope with summer heat wave fortunately less intense than in 2019. Then rain episodes at the end of August and end of September slowed down maturity of the grapes. Finally the harvest started late August, as in recent years, with Grenache blanc of Platanes plot. Free from vine diseases, grapes were generous : quantity is higher than 2019 on all of our plots. A selected harvest by grape variety, spreads over time, will end Oct. 6th with some old Grenache noir vines.

Several soil types composed the estate: clay-limestone, sand-clay, sandstone strewn with the famous 'galets roulés'.

The grapes are hand picked and sorted on table. They are then put into vat (partially truncated and stainless) for almost 4 weeks with regular pumping overs and punching downs, tasting the must everyday during fermentation to ensure the best extraction of the berries compounds. At the end, the wines are racked into oak vats for the malolactic fermentation. When this second fermentation is complete, our cuvée will be aged in our big oak casks (foudres 35% - truncated vat 40%) and barrels (new 15% - old 10%) for 12 months of ageing before blending will be done. Bottling will take place 6 months later.