Chateau de Fonsalette
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Spoken about in hushed tones by many a collector, Chateau Rayas - and all of its arms from Fonsalette to Chateau des Tours - is known as the greatest Grenache producer in the world. After his uncle Jacques' passing in 1997, Emmanuel Reynaud has continually crafted phenomenal wines from each estate that are sought the world over.
Several generations have run the Chateau Rayas, but Jacques Reynaud took the wines into the stratosphere, where Emmanuel has only served to keep them since his ascendance in 1997. Almost as reticent in accepting his fame as Jacques - who used to hide when cars would approach the Chateau - Emmanuel guards closely his recipe to the legendary wines escaping the estate every year.
We know that the vines are ancient and produce small, intense yields. There is no temperature-control in the cellars, and the wines ferment in concrete before being transferred to ancient barrels of several different sizes. That's it - no magic tricks, just patience; the wines will ferment for about a year, and then will be aged in bottle at the estates until they are deemed ready to drink; routinely vintages are released nearly a decade after their fermentations conclude.
Fonsalette, just outside of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, is home to 30 acres of old-vine Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah which create the red wines; Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Marsanne lend the base for the white. Beyond the quality of any Cotes-du-Rhone wine before or since, these are nearly parallel in quality to the Rayas wines themselves.
