2019 Famille Brunier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Clos La Roquète Blanc
40% Clairette, 25% Grenache Blanc, 25% Roussane, and 10% Bourboulenc
Winery: Famile Brunier, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone (France)
Winemaker: Frédéric & Daniel Brunier
Retail: $46 (2021)
Valentine's Day Wine Up is a 2019 Famille Brunier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Clos La Roquète Blanc! Not our first Valentine's Day but my first white Châteauneuf-du-Pape! Can age until 2034.
Fragrant white flowers, honeydo melon, and almost ripe white peach. A medium to full-bodied wine. Found it has some rocky minerality from the vineyard terroir. Rather than use oak barrels or casks the winemaker uses large foudres and demi-muids to impart less oak into the wine giving it a dry, crisp finish. The finish was over 30 seconds!
The grapes were planted in 1987 on three hecacres that the soils are sand on red clay and galets roulés (larger, rounded stones that have been smoothed by both glacial and fluvial actions over time and deposited in the region by the Rhône).
The producer ages the wine for 8 months before bottling. The vineyard farming is said to be "Lutte Raisonnée" meaning due to high use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides in the 1950's that caused soil degradation of the soil. The soil doesn't have the necessary microbiotic life forms that support healthy soils. Lutte raisonnée means “reasoned fight” or “supervised control”. Today they use chemical treatments when absolutely necessary as a pragmatic approach. It also a farming practice to plant cover crops, extensive plowing of the soils, and the use of manures and natural composts to fertilize the vines. A sort of organic style farming approach.
Alcohol: 13.5%
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