Château de Beaucastel
The Château de Beaucastel is one of the important and traditional wineries of the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the town of the same name in the southern Rhone Valley . With a vineyard area of 110 hectares, it is also one of the largest estates. It is on the northern limit of the growing area, near Courthézon .
history
The origins of the estate are in the 16th century. In 1549 a certain Pierre de Beaucastel bought a property in Coudoulet. His descendants built an estate there and the family stayed there for 200 years. At that time, however, it was about arable and pasture areas, viticulture is not documented for this time. In 1792 the owner was called Etienne Gontard , his heirs were mentioned for 40 years in connection with 36 ares of vineyard area. At the end of the 19th century the vineyards were devastated by phylloxera . The owner at the time, Élie Dussaud , did not plant again, but decided to sell it to Pierre Tramier in 1909 . He planted the vineyards and transferred the estate to his son-in-law Pierre Perrin . Today, Beaucastel is run by the fourth generation of the Perrin family. The current owners are the brothers François and Jean Perrin . Her father, Jacques Perrin , who died in 1978 , was a valued cellar master in the Rhone Valley. He established three basic principles for the wines of Beaucastel: The wines should be produced using natural methods, a large proportion of the Mourvèdre grape variety should be used and the natural properties of the wine should not be adulterated by modern technology.
The Perrin family is a member of the Primum Familiae Vini association .
Location, soil and grape varieties
Beaucastel wine grows on a plateau in the northeast of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation. The soil consists of red clay , with the upper 50 cm containing more sand , while the lower ones contain more clay . The bottom is covered with pebbles .
The vineyards on the estate have an average age of around 50 years. Natural materials such as manure are used for fertilization. Château de Beaucastel is one of the few estates owned by Châteauneuf-du-Pape that uses all thirteen approved grape varieties for the production of its red wines. These are vinified separately and only assembled later .
Wines and winemaking
The red Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC (70 ha) is a cuvée made from grapes of the Mourvèdre (30%), Grenache (30%), Syrah (10%), Counoise (10%), Cinsault (5%) as well as muscardine and vaccarèse is composed. In suitable years, the red top cuvée Hommage à Jacques Perrin is also bottled, which mainly comes from 70-year-old vines. The Hommage à Jacques Perrin contains 70% Mourvèdre , 15% Syrah, 10% Grenache and 5% Counoise. Only 5,000 bottles of this are produced, while the Châteauneuf des Guts produces around 250,000 bottles.
A special method developed by Jacques Perrin in the 1920s is used to make the red wines: the grapes are destemmed, the berries are steamed to 60 ° C for 90 seconds and then cooled down to 20 ° C just as quickly. This is intended on the one hand to extract the aroma and color from the berry skins, and on the other hand to counteract premature oxidation . As a result, the wine can be sulfurized less . The Grenache in particular seems to benefit from this. The subsequent fermentation on the skins lasts 15 days and the wine is aged in large wooden barrels. Only the Syrah matures in new barriques . Before bottling the wine is again with beaten egg white fined but not filtered .
The estate's white Châteauneuf-du-Pape is considered a sought-after rarity by wine connoisseurs. 20,000 bottles of Châteauneuf-du-Pape blanc and almost 4,000 bottles of Châteauneuf-du-Pape blanc Vieilles Vignes (old vines) are produced. The normal white wine consists of 80% grapes of the rare Roussanne variety and 15% Grenache Blanc and small proportions of other varieties. In contrast, the “Vieilles Vignes” is a single-variety Roussanne, which is pressed exclusively from grapes that should come from vines with a minimum age of 65 years. Half of it is aged in wooden barrels, the normal white wine only 20%. The Roussanne always goes through a malolactic fermentation . The white wines can have a relatively long shelf life if stored properly in the bottle.
Wine from younger vines or own wine from neighboring areas is processed into a wine of the Côtes du Rhône appellation and bears the name Coudoulet de Beaucastel . The Perrin family also owns the La Vieille Ferme wine trading company , which sells wines from the Côtes du Luberon and Côtes du Ventoux and is based in Orange .
assessment
For all its density and structure, the wine style is more characterized by elegance than power. Depending on the vintage quality, it needs several years of bottle aging . Robert Parker counts Château de Beaucastel among the outstanding producers of his appellation.
literature
- Michel Dovaz: Châteauneuf-du-Pape . Jacques Legrand, Boulogne 1992, ISBN 2-905969-56-3
- Hugh Johnson: The great Johnson. Hallwag Verlag, Bern 1997, p. 219 ff, ISBN 3-444-10495-2 .
- Robert M. Parker: Parker Rhone. Hallwag Verlag, Bern 1997, p. 400 ff, ISBN 3-444-10493-6 .
- James Turnbull: Vallée du Rhône. Grandeur Nature. Éditions EPA / Hachette-Livre, Paris 1999, p. 96, ISBN 2-85120-532-3
- Harry Karis: The Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine book . 1st edition. Kavino Book Publishing, Roermond 2009, ISBN 978-90-812017-1-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Jancis Robinson: The Oxford Wine Lexicon. Hallwag Verlag, Munich 2003, pp. 145 f., ISBN 3774209146 .
- ↑ According to Michel Dovaz - Turnbull even speaks of 80 ° C, Parker only of 30 ° C
- ↑ Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, No. 179, 2008, pp. 3 ff.