Saouma Omnia 2017 — power from the depths of the South 

The 2017 vintage was a year of extremes in the Southern Rhône: an early frost in April drastically decimated the harvest, then a hot, dry summer drove the surviving grapes to extraordinary concentration. For producers like the Saoumas, who farm biodynamically and view nature in its entirety as a partner, this vintage was both a challenge and a revelation: the tiny yields delivered grapes of phenomenal depth. 

The Omnia 2017 is a wine that demands attention: it is not “easy drinking”, it is not immediately flattering. It is serious, great and asks for patience. Lovers of grand bottles find here exactly what they seek: southern power allied with northern rigour, united in a wine that still has years — if not decades — to offer. 

How does it taste? 

The deep ruby is almost impenetrable, with a hint of garnet at the rim. The nose is intense and multi-layered: dark cherries, blackberries and black plums form the foundation, followed by a complex spice layer of lavender, rosemary, black pepper and dried meat. In the background: dark chocolate, tar, ink and a hint of dried prune. On the palate, the Omnia 2017 shows remarkable concentration and depth built layer upon layer. The tannins are present but silky and well-integrated; the acidity provides freshness and tension in so powerful a wine. The finish is extraordinarily long — minutes, not seconds. Decanting for at least 2 hours is recommended. Peak 2027–2040. 

Serving temperature: 17–19°C · Drinking window: 2025 through 2040+ 

Perfect with 

A wine for grand meat dishes: aged côte de bœuf over wood fire, rack of lamb with herb crust and garrigue butter, saddle of wild boar with mushrooms and dark chocolate sauce, roasted pigeon with black olives and thyme jus. Ideal with aged Comté or a robust Ossau-Iraty. For those who truly want to experience it: one bottle decanted today, a second cellared until 2030 — and witness the difference yourself. 

The critics agree — Saouma Omnia 2017 is a monument 

Wine Advocate (97/100): “A monumental Châteauneuf-du-Pape of staggering depth and concentration. This wine needs time but will reward patience with something extraordinary.” Antonio Galloni (Vinous, 96/100): “With the Omnia 2017, the Saoumas have produced perhaps their most complex wine to date. A wine that unites the soul of the appellation with the domaine’s personal vision.” James Suckling (97/100): “Deep, spicy, almost meditative — a Châteauneuf-du-Pape that doesn’t ask whether you’re willing to give it time; it simply demands it.” 

Saouma Arioso 2019 — southern soul, northern precision 

Rarely does a domaine build such a reputation in so short a time. Rotem & Mounir Saouma are not winemaking dynasties looking back over centuries of viticultural tradition — they are passionate lovers of wine who were willing to invest everything in their project: time, money, dedication. The results speak for themselves: wines of exceptional purity and personality that immediately establish themselves as a singular voice in the dense world of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. 

The 2019 vintage is regarded in Châteauneuf-du-Pape as classically Mediterranean: warm, dry, generous in fruit — but through early harvesting and biodynamic farming, the Saoumas preserved the freshness and elegance that define their wines. The Arioso 2019 carries the southern sun without being overwhelmed by it. 

How does it taste? 

The colour is a brilliant, deep ruby with violet reflections. The nose captivates with a pure, expressive aromatics: first cherries, red berries and fresh raspberry, then lavender, dried garrigue herbs, orange zest and a hint of sandalwood. On the palate, the Arioso 2019 shows a silky texture and lively freshness one does not necessarily expect from a warm vintage. The tannins are fine and well-integrated; the finish is long, spicy and warm, with a pleasant echo of cherry and lavender. Decanting for 45–60 minutes is recommended. Peak 2024–2032. 

Serving temperature: 16–18°C · Drinking window: now through 2032 

Perfect with 

A wine for the Provençal table: roasted leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic, braised beef cheeks with olives and thyme, duck breast with cherry sauce, grilled côte de bœuf over wood fire. Wonderful also with aged cheeses from southern France: Pélardon, Picodon, Banon. For lovers of Mediterranean cuisine: a lamb tagine with apricots and ras el hanout. 

The critics agree — Saouma Arioso 2019 delights 

Wine Advocate (95/100): “An elegant, expressive Châteauneuf of great complexity and freshness — a wine that clearly exceeds its quality tier.” Antonio Galloni (Vinous, 94/100): “The Arioso 2019 displays the characteristic precision and purity of the Saouma philosophy: wines of personality, not muscle.” James Suckling (95/100): “Delightfully fruity, silky and balanced — a Châteauneuf-du-Pape that delivers immediate pleasure yet still has potential.” 

Beaucastel Blanc Roussanne Vieilles Vignes: The White Wine Nobody Expected

When the Perrin family decided in 1986 to produce a separate cuvée from their oldest Roussanne vines, the wine world’s reaction was lukewarm. Châteauneuf-du-Pape was a red wine appellation. White wine existed of course — but as a by-product, a curiosity, not as a prestige object. Beaucastel had other plans.

1909: The Vines That Founded a Legend

The story of the Roussanne Vieilles Vignes begins with a date worth remembering: 1909. The year Pierre Tramier acquired Château de Beaucastel and planted the first Roussanne vines on the north-western parcel. Vines that are today over 115 years old. Vines that have survived two world wars, the phylloxera crisis, climate change and five generations of the Perrin family.

These vines do not give much. Yields are minimal — 20 to 25 hectolitres per hectare, a fraction of the permitted maximum. But what they give is of a concentration and depth rarely found elsewhere in the world.

Roussanne: The Most Complex White Grape of the Rhône

Roussanne is not easy. She is sensitive, disease-prone, capricious — a grape that demands much and sometimes gives little. Many producers in Châteauneuf-du-Pape have for this reason reduced or abandoned it entirely. Beaucastel did the opposite: they built their entire prestige white wine upon it.

Why? Because Roussanne, when old and growing on the right terroir, can do something no other white wine from the South of France can do: it ages like a great Burgundy. It develops complexity, depth and nuance over decades. It does not become heavier or flatter — it becomes finer, more precise, more profound.

The galets roulés terroir of Beaucastel gives the Roussanne a mineral tension found only in Hermitage or the Châteauneuf whites of Rayas. The combination of century-old vines, organic farming and ageing in demi-muids with 50% new oak creates a wine that cannot decide whether it wants to be richness or elegance — and ends up being both.

500 Cases. No More.

The production of the Roussanne Vieilles Vignes is limited to around 500 cases per year. Not by marketing calculation, but because the parcel simply gives no more. On the secondary market, mature vintages change hands for 500 CHF and upwards. Buyers on the waiting list wait years.

Jeb Dunnuck called the wine “the Montrachet of the southern Rhône” — a claim that initially surprised the wine world and was then increasingly accepted as accurate. Because what Beaucastel achieves here is without parallel in the South: a Grand Cru-quality white wine from a region known, until a few decades ago, for red wine and nothing else.

2009: The Vintage That Confirms Everything

The 2009 vintage was in the southern Rhône exceptionally warm and opulent — one of the most celebrated of recent decades. For the Roussanne Vieilles Vignes, it was ideal: the natural sweetness of the grape found in 2009 the perfect ripeness, the creamy texture its maximum expression, the minerality of the terroir its deepest voice.

Today, after 15 years, this wine drinks brilliantly. Not because it has reached and passed its peak — but because it has arrived exactly where it was always meant to be. The wine needed time. As everything great does.

The Difficult Vintage: Why 2013 is the Most Honest Year from Domaine des Tours

In the wine world, there are easy vintages and difficult vintages. The easy ones make every winemaker look brilliant — warmth, ripeness, concentration, applause. The difficult ones sort things out. They separate winemakers from farmers, patience from impatience, conviction from adaptation.

2013 was a difficult vintage. And Domaine des Tours 2013 is perhaps the most honest wine Emmanuel Reynaud has ever made.

A Year Against the Current

The spring of 2013 in Provence was cold and wet. The flowering was irregular. The summer was capricious — warm, then cold, then warm again. Many producers in the South harvested early to avoid the worst. Reynaud did not. He waited for autumn — for those final October weeks when the weather finally cleared and the grapes found the last ripeness they needed.

The result: grapes with unusually high acidity, less concentration than in warm years, but a minerality and freshness that gave the wines a tension rare in the southern Rhône. This is not a wine you love immediately. It is a wine you understand — and then cannot put down.

What “Natural Acidity” Means

In the age of climate change, natural acidity in the South of France is a rare commodity. Most modern wines from the Vaucluse or Côtes du Rhône are acidified with purchased tartaric acid — a legal, widespread practice that is technically clean and yet misses something fundamental. The acidity must come from the grape. From the vine. From the vintage.

In the 2013 Domaine des Tours, it comes from exactly there. And you feel it. The wine has a tension, a vivacity, a precision on the palate that cannot be bought. You can only let it grow — or wait until it is there.

Reynaud waited.

The Paradox of the Cool Year in the Warm South

Here lies the paradox of 2013: in a year that the wine world labelled as difficult, Reynaud made a wine that cannot be born in many other years. Not because he did something exceptional — but because he did nothing against it. He let nature be what it was that year: cooler, more taut, more mineral than usual. And he waited until it was finished.

That is the true lesson of Domaine des Tours 2013. Not “a good wine from a difficult year.” But: “A different wine from a different year — and that is not an excuse, it is a quality.”

Anyone who knows all four vintages in the range — 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 — drinks four different versions of the same philosophy. Four different answers to the same question: what can Grenache from Sarrians truly be? The 2013 gives the coolest, most austere and perhaps most thoughtful answer of all.

La Pialade: What Happens When Rayas Sorts

In every great estate in the world, there is a selection. A quiet but consequential decision: these barrels will become the great wine. These will not. The rejected grapes — not concentrated enough, not ripe enough, the wrong parcel in this particular year — become something else.

In most great estates, that means a second wine. At Château Rayas, it means La Pialade.

The “Rejects” of Rayas

Emmanuel Reynaud is known for making no compromises. Every grape that does not pass selection for Rayas or Fonsalette ends up in La Pialade. Not because it is bad — but because it does not meet Reynaud’s standard for those wines. The benchmark is Rayas. And those who know Rayas understand: that benchmark is absurdly high.

The result is a wine that insiders describe as the most generous secret of the southern Rhône. A Côtes du Rhône better than nine out of ten Châteauneuf-du-Papes on the market. Not because of the appellation. Not because of the terroir. But because of the hands that make it — and because those hands have already taken the best for Rayas, and still leave this behind.

Vinified in the Cellar of Rayas

This is not a detail — it is the heart of the story. La Pialade is not born in a separate cellar, not in a different facility. It is born in the mythical cellar of Château Rayas itself, with the same old foudres, the same spontaneous yeasts, the same temperature, the same care. What the wine loses is the status of the grape. What it keeps is everything else.

Spontaneous fermentation. No temperature control. Long ageing. No filtration. No fining. The result is a wine that — despite its modest appellation — carries the full Reynaud craft: transparency, freshness, floral finesse, a lightness that deceives.

A Wine for Every Evening — and for No Special Occasion

There are wines you keep. For special evenings, for grand occasions, for guests who understand. And then there are wines you simply open. Because it is Tuesday. Because dinner is ready. Because you want to drink something good without thinking about it.

La Pialade is that wine. And that is not a comment on its quality — it is a comment on its character. It is the friend in the Reynaud universe: accessible, warm, immediately understood. Where Fonsalette makes you think and Rayas leaves you speechless, La Pialade simply makes you happy.

And sometimes that is the greatest thing of all.

Château de Fonsalette: The Secret on the Other Side of the Boundary

Boundaries in wine are strange things. One metre of difference in location can be the difference between a simple table wine and a legendary Grand Cru — not because of the soil, not because of the grape, but because of a line that humans drew on a map.

Château de Fonsalette lives on the wrong side of that line. And makes of it one of the greatest estates in France.

1945: The Purchase That Started Everything

Louis Reynaud, grandfather of the current guardian Emmanuel Reynaud, acquired Fonsalette in 1945 — shortly after the end of the Second World War, in a France slowly rebuilding itself. The estate lies near Lagarde-Paréol, in the Côtes du Rhône area, directly at the northern edge of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation. 120 hectares in total: forests, olive groves, agricultural land — and just 12 hectares of vines. This modesty of surface is not a weakness. It is intention.

The soils are complex: sand, clay, limestone — similar but not identical to the famous gravel soils of Rayas. Old-vine Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah for the reds; Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Marsanne for the whites. All harvested by hand. All vinified with the same methods as Rayas. All aged in the same cellar.

One Cellar. Three Legends.

This is the key to understanding Fonsalette: the wine is not vinified at Fonsalette itself. It travels to Emmanuel Reynaud — to Château Rayas. There, in the same mythical cellar, under the same direction, with the same old foudres and the same philosophy, the Fonsalette Rouge is born alongside the Rayas, alongside the Pignan. No temperature control. No filtration. Spontaneous fermentation. Long ageing.

What distinguishes Fonsalette from Rayas is not the method. It is the terroir — the other side of the boundary. And that makes it one of the most fascinating wines in France: a wine one does not drink because it is cheaper than Rayas. One drinks it because it is different. More deeply rooted in Cinsault and its floral lightness. Broader in its Grenache base. More accessible, but no less complex.

Cinsault: The Forgotten Pearl

In a world that worships Grenache and Syrah, Cinsault is the forgotten grape. Too light, some say. Too little colour, too little extraction. And yet: in Fonsalette, the Cinsault — up to 35% of the blend — gives the wine something Grenache alone cannot provide. Flowers. Rose. Violet. An airy lightness that keeps the wine from ever feeling heavy despite its depth. It is this lightness that distinguishes Fonsalette from every other southern Rhône wine — that Burgundian bearing that runs through every vintage.

The Price of Integrity

Fonsalette is one of the most sought-after Côtes du Rhône in the world — and one of the most expensive. Bottles from the great vintages change hands for more than 500 CHF on the secondary market. Not because there was a plan to create a luxury Côtes du Rhône. But because Emmanuel Reynaud simply does the only thing he knows: wine of absolute integrity, regardless of what is written on the label.

That is the paradox of Fonsalette. The label says Côtes du Rhône. The wine says: I am what I am. And that is enough.

Grenache Blanc: The Underrated Queen of the South

When one mentions the name Château Rayas, most people think of red. Of Grenache Noir. Of that almost supernatural power born from poor soils and old vines. But those who truly understand what Emmanuel Reynaud does know: the white is at least as fascinating. Perhaps more so.

For Château Rayas Blanc — made from 100% Grenache Blanc — is considered in connoisseur circles to be one of the greatest white wines in the world. Not great in the sense of loud, concentrated, heavily extracted. Great in the sense of complex, unfathomable, timeless. Wines that can age ten, twenty, thirty years and reinvent themselves with every bottle.

The Les Tours Réserve Grenache Blanc is the echo of this philosophy — at a more accessible, but no less fascinating level.

A Mutation That Changes Everything

Grenache Blanc is not an independent grape variety in the classical sense — it is a natural mutation of red Grenache Noir. The genetic kinship is so close that on some old parcels, red and white grapes can literally grow on the same vine — a phenomenon known as an “ampelographic chimera.” What looks like a genetic accident produces in the glass an entire world of its own.

Grenache Blanc is the white grape nobody knows — and everyone should love. It has the potential of Chardonnay, the aromatics of Viognier, the acidity of Vermentino. But it is none of these things. It is itself — generous and fresh, creamy and mineral, expressive and complex.

Why Vaucluse — and Not Châteauneuf?

A legitimate question. Grenache Blanc is permitted in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Reynaud could theoretically produce a white Châteauneuf. He does not — or barely. Why? Because his best white parcels lie in Sarrians, outside the appellation, on soils with a different geological composition: black sand, gravel, limestone. A terroir that gives the Grenache Blanc a minerality and freshness impossible in the heavy clay soils of Châteauneuf.

The IGP Vaucluse label is therefore not a constraint. It is a liberation — the possibility of producing the finest expression of Grenache Blanc, independent of appellation rules.

A Wine for Those Who Ask: “What Can White Wine Really Be?”

The Les Tours Réserve Grenache Blanc is not a simple answer to that question. It is a complex, layered, slowly unfolding answer — best understood by opening the bottle, waiting an hour, then drinking again. And marvelling at how much the wine has changed.

That is Grenache Blanc. That is Reynaud. That is Sarrians.

Time as Ingredient: Why Reynaud Waits When Everyone Else Rushes

In the modern wine world, time is money. Wine sitting in the winemaker’s cellar is wine that is not being sold, not being paid for, not existing. The economic logic is ruthless: wine is released as soon as the law permits.

Emmanuel Reynaud does not care.

The wines of Château des Tours and Domaine des Tours are routinely released almost a decade after the harvest. Not because storage is expensive. Not because the market demands it. But because Reynaud feels the wine is not yet ready. And because he asks nobody’s opinion.

The Winemaker’s Clock is Not the Market’s Clock

When the 2018 Domaine des Tours was released, nobody asked Reynaud when it would be ready. He decided it himself — quietly, discreetly, without announcement. The wine left the cellar when it left — not a day earlier. This is not a posture. It is a conviction rooted deeply in the estate’s history.

The Reynaud family purchased the 40 hectares in Sarrians in 1935. The old mas — flanked by two distinctive towers, hence “Des Tours” — has housed four generations since. Emmanuel took over from his father Bernard, brother of the legendary Jacques. He grew up in these vineyards, knowing every stone, every vine, every corner of the cellar. Patience was not a virtue he had to learn. It was simply the air he breathed.

No Temperature Control. No Rush. No Compromise.

The wines ferment spontaneously with native yeasts — often for more than a year, slowly and coolly in underground concrete tanks. No temperature management. No pressure. The CO2 blanket of fermentation naturally protects the wine. Then come the old barrels, various sizes, no new wood for the basic red wines. No fining. No filtration.

The result is every time the same miracle: a wine that looks like little and tastes like much. That reveals its origin without betraying its recipe. That lives in the glass — and not in the marketing material.

The 2018 is the perfect illustration of what happens when an exceptional year meets an exceptional winemaker who does not regard time as an enemy, but as the final ingredient.

2016 versus 2017: Two Characters, One Soul

When you have two vintages of the same wine in your cellar — and you have the rare fortune of owning both — the same question always arises: which one do you open first? For the Domaine des Tours Vaucluse Rouge, the answer is more complex and more interesting than one might think.

The 2016 is the introverted vintage. Cool, precise, with a tension and minerality one would more likely expect from a great Burgundy. It needs time — in the glass, in the decanter, in the cellar. It is the wine for the evening that unfolds slowly, that reveals itself layer by layer, that stays with you the next morning.

The 2017 is its sociable sibling. Warmer, rounder, more open — accessible from the first sip, seductive, immediate. It needs less time. It comes to you rather than waiting. It is the wine for the moment, for the impromptu dinner, for the first glass that immediately calls for a second.

Both come from the same hands, the same vines, the same cellar. And yet they tell different stories — like two chapters of the same novel, read at different volumes.

Silence as Method

What sets Reynaud apart from almost all other winemakers is not just his philosophy — it is his silence. He gives no interviews. He attends no trade fairs. He publishes no tasting notes. He sends no press releases. The wine speaks. The winemaker is quiet.

In an era where wine marketing has become louder than ever, this silence is radical. And it works, because the wine is strong enough to speak for itself — in every vintage, in every bottle, in every glass.

The 2017 is a particularly fine example of this. Warm, direct, seductive — and yet with that unmistakable Reynaud depth that elevates it above all other country wines in its category. You drink it and think: nobody else can do this. And you are right.