Rayas Meets La Gramière...

We had another great visit to Chateau Rayas this year.  Rayas, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is one of the legendary properties in Châteauneuf-du-Pape.  It has a unique terroir and setting in Chateauneuf, all it's vineyards being surrounded by woods.  There's often more humidity and "fraicheur" which leads  to the creation of a very special wine, unlike any other in Châteauneuf du Pape.  The property is now run by Emmanuel Reynaud, nephew of the late Jacques Reynaud whose fiery personality was almost as legendary as the wines he made.  Emmanuel is quite a character in his own right, not mincing words, and often skeptical and wary of the people that come to visit.  Once you break through the surface though, he is quite charming.   The first time I met him, I was with Thierry Desseauve and his wife Nadine.  As we stepped out of the car, he quickly scanned us and said; "I hope you're not wearing any perfume." 

This is one of those situations, where being blond, female, fairly young, and an American are serious counts against you, and one where being able to say that I am a fellow vigneron, tend to wipe all of those doubts away.  I think for Emmanuel Reynaud, that was the only way I would really ever be accepted as someone who might taste and write about his wines.  Of course,  it's Thierry Desseauve who will write about Château Rayas, but it's me who will write about  Emmanuel's own winery Château des Tours in Vacqueyras.  Château des Tours makes excellent wines, very different from other Vacqueyras wines. They are often released much later after several years of barrel aging.  As barrels are decades old,  you are benefiting from the slow oxidation process and not at all from a new oak influence.  The winemaking at Rayas is much the same.

We first took a walk around the vineyards.  It was late afternoon, and the light was just beautiful.  Emmanuel has taken great care to replace a lot of the missing vines that have died off over the years and the state of the vineyards was impeccable.  We then went into the winery to taste.  As a test, Emmanuel always starts the tasting with a barrel of Cinsault, not exactly what one expects at Rayas.  It doesn't have the complexity and depth of Grenache, and that usually throws people off.   As we proceeded through the tasting, I would often ask questions about the vineyards or vinification and Reynaud would often say things like; "Well you should know, making wine yourself, you've had the same experience at your place."  Or he would ask me how we did things at our place, or how our wine was tasting, or what varietals we had.  At one point I can't remember why, I was making some comment about our wine and said that I'd like him to taste it.  He said he would be glad to taste it and that I should bring it by sometime.  Well, here I had to open my big mouth and say that I had a bottle in the car, and would he like to taste it.  He said sure, we'll taste it at the end before we taste the whites.  Oh boy.

We finished tasting through all of the reds in barrel and then the reds in bottle.  I was secretly hoping that he would forget about tasting La Gramière, and secretly hoping he wouldn't.  But in the end what did I have to lose.  Sure enough he remembered, so I ran out to the car to get of bottle of our wine, and thought to myself, geez! What were you thinking??? Tasting La Gramière at Château Rayas, one of the greatest wineries in Châteauneuf-du-Pape??  It started off really well.  He said, " Hmm this is good.  It's a good wine.  The best thing is that there's no oak!"  Then we got down to the nitty-gritty.  He asked me a bunch of detailed questions about when we harvested and how we made it.  He gave me some really great insight about what we could do next year to make it better.   It's clear that we're very far from being in a league with Rayas, but that's not really what I ever dreamed of.  Like I told Kermit Lynch when he was visiting, we're not trying to change the world, we're just trying to make a wine that we like to drink.  I think we've done that, but I think that there's so very much we can learn from people like Emmanuel Reynaud.  Hopefully, our wine will progress over the next few years and Emmanuel will like it even better the next time he tastes it.

Comments

[Steve Lanum]

Maybe you should consider adding "Hmm, c'est bon! --E. Reynaud" to your label. No faint praise.

[brooklynguy]

Some one recently gave me a bottle of 2003 Rayas, a wine I know nothing about from a region I know very little about. I searched the web for Rayas, and here is the first readable and informative thing to read. Thank you!

Sounds like an incredible experience, going over your work with a master.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=663991991]

I had a lump in my throat as I finished reading-- character through & through-- beneath the rustic gruffness, a generous openness of spirit! Santé!