Château Rayas

After visiting Emmanuel Reynaud in April this year to taste through barrel samples of all the 2022 reds for my previous report, my return to Châteauneuf-du-Pape only four months later meant that there wasn’t anything more recent to review. Some of the 2023 reds had not yet finished fermentation. Instead, I took Reynaud up on a previous offer to show me the vineyards of Château de Fonsalette, a Côtes du Rhône vinified at Château Rayas. A 30-minute drive north of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Château de Fonsalette is based in Lagarde-Paréol. The historic 120-hectare property includes woodlands, olive groves, various wheats and an old castle surrounded by 15 hectares of vineyards. “My grandfather, Louis Reynaud, founded Château de Fonsalette in 1945,” Reynaud begins. “During the Second World War, soldiers came through here, but the castle wasn’t damaged.” Strolling through the vineyards, Reynaud explains that his grandfather included Cinsaut in his blends from early on to lend elegance to the Grenache, also adding Syrah for spicy complexities. The Fonsalette vineyards encompass one large parcel at the foot of the castle as well as two smaller sites in close proximity. Similar to Rayas, woodlands border most of the vineyards. “All this wooded area is part of the estate, bringing a lot of humidity and coolness. The vines face north, while the roots of the trees are on the southern side, which is why there’s no competition between the vines and trees for water,” Reynaud explains.

As with the other two Reynaud estates, there’s no Mourvèdre in the vineyards of Château de Fonsalette. “Our sandy soils are too dry to plant Mourvèdre. You can’t see the sea from here, and we’re facing north. Mourvèdre needs to have a view of the sea,” he remarks with a wink. We then reach the Syrah vines, which go into the regular Côtes du Rhône of Château de Fonsalette, as well as in the single-variety cuvée called Syrah. Reynaud usually pours two different Syrah samples, with the difference being the respective soil composition. One of the two Syrahs grows in soils with a higher proportion of clay, making it more humid and cooler, which yields denser, more compact wines. With most of the Syrah having been sold off to merchants in the winery’s early days and Louis Reynaud not being interested in producing a varietal Syrah, it was Jacques Reynaud, Emmanuel’s uncle, who created this wine.

Due to the cool microclimate, the growing season at Château de Fonsalette runs up to two weeks later than in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. At harvesting, whole-cluster grapes are placed into small crates and transported to Château Rayas for vinification and maturation. “All in all, the harvest here takes roughly ten days, spread over multiple periods. Grenache Blanc is usually harvested first, with Marsanne ripening roughly at the same time. Clairette Blanche needs about two weeks more to ripen adequately.” After the white varieties, the estate picks Cinsaut and Syrah simultaneously, with Grenache coming in at the very end. One of the two Reynaud wines featured in this report is the gorgeous 2009 Château de Fonsalette Côtes du Rhône, outperforming every other Côtes du Rhône I have tasted from that vintage. Moving on to the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, the perfect 2010 Château Rayas is a modern-day benchmark, radiating its pedigree and class far beyond the Rhône Valley. It reminds me of something Reynaud once said to me: “C’est les générations qui peuvent passer, mais c’est toujours le terroir qui va parler”—Generations may come and go, but it’s always the terroir that will speak. In the case of both these wines? Loud and clear.