M. Chapoutier Barbe Rac Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge 2020

Description

M. Chapoutier Barbe Rac Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge is part of Chapoutier’s Fac et Spera Sélection Parcellaire range of wines, a range of specially selected parcels of single vineyard wines which Chapoutier describe as a “precise ‘photographic’ image of a terroir”, a snapshot of a grape, in a certain year, in a given terroir. Fac & Spera means “Do & Hope”.

Maison Chapoutier has grown into one of the largest and most recognisable producers of Rhone wines. The company dates back to 1808 when Michel Chapoutier’s distant ancester Polydor Chapoutier bought a parcel of vines in the Rhone Valley. Today the Chapoutier has vineyard throughout the Rhone from Côte Rôtie in the north to Luberon in the south as well as having overseas projecs like Domaine Tournon in Victoria, Australia. Michel is committed to making the best wines whilst respecting the environment. Chapoutier now owns the largest biodynamic vineyard in Europe. It is his personal conviction that “the complexity in a wine comes from the level of microbiological activity around the vine roots”. Soils on the Chapoutier estate never see pesticides or herbicides, floral growth amongst the vines is essential, and the natural cycles of earth, sun and moon are also considered.

M. Chapoutier Barbe Rac Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge is made from 100% Grenache. This wine is produced from an ancient, 90-year-old 4ha terraced vineyard planted on red clay and ferruginous sand soil covered by large galettes – typical round pebbles of the region. This vineyard produces some of the finest Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines.

The grapes are carefully selected during the harvest.  As Grenache is sensitive to oxidation, the wine is vinified in concrete tanks. Fermentation lasts about 3 weeks (which allows a polymerization of tannins) with a temperature which varies between 30 and 33°C. Only the free-run wine is used in this single vineyard wine. The wine is matured in vats for around 16 months.