Paul Autard Chateauneuf Du Pape La Cote Ronde 2020
The Autard family has worked for generations at their old domaine in Courthézon then built a new cellar in 2005. Jean-Paul Autard is the current ‘man in charge’. He brings his own ideas, experiments and intuitions to make Domaine Paul Autard one of the big names in this prestigious appellation.
Jean-Paul has been running the family estate since the age of 17. His choices of cultivation, vinification and aging (phenolic maturity, total destemming of the harvest, aging in barrels) have always produced top-flight results. His use of small barrels, while not unique, is less en vogue than it used to be as many producer switch to concrete and larger foudres. But as I’ll explain, there is a particular reason for these barriques in the cellar.
The family owns some serious dirt, most of it in the east and northeast of the appellation, kind of sandwiched between La Crau and their winery near Courthezon. In the north, Grenache is still king but the cooler temps and varying soils also allow for the production of some of the finest Syrah in Chateauneuf, and Autard may very well have the best!
The Paul Autard Chateauneuf du Pape La Côte Ronde 2020 comes from a 90-year-old plot planted in a terroir of rolled pebbles and fossilized limestone blocks in the lieu-dit known as Le Mourre du Gaud, just north of Charbonnieres and La Crau Nord. The limestone here equally supports terrific old-vine Grenache and Syrah, thus this wine having always been a straight 50/50 blend. The wine is aged 16 months in new French Barriques.
