Certain wines have a reputation for transcending their appellations or varieties. Clos Rougeard. Vatan. d’Auvenay Auxey, perhaps. But nothing quite like Rayas, which is orders of magnitude more revered and expensive than anything else in Chateauneuf – and becoming dearer by the day. And more than that, Rayas is qualitatively quite unique and distinctive compared with other wines the the appellation. Which raises the questions: What is it about Rayas’s terroir, and/or its viticulture and winemaking, that makes it unique? It it replicable? And relatedly, why can’t anyone come close to replicating what Rayas is doing? The incentive is surely there. Is anyone really trying to make wines in the same style that approach what Rayas is doing? Who?
Just genuinely curious here. I used to love CndP, but like many of us, I have basically stopped buying them at some point over the last decade. But I’m interested in whether there are producers I’m missing.
I will defer to the true intellectuals to explain the transcendence of Rayas and Vatan, but having spent a fun weekend recently with some of the boys drinking world-class wines, these two stood out to me in a transcendent way. They were a cut above in aromatics, palate sense, and texture of the materials. It was apparent from the first swirl and sniff that these wines, that night, were on a different plane. Now that said, we also lucked out with two excellent vintages of these wines, the bottles being in immaculate condition, and both being of sufficient maturity, 2008 and 2005 respectively, to showcase their goods.
Meats immediately started buying every Vatan he could find!
Absolutely this - it’s maddening, yet delightful, to understand how these producers, in particular, have such a singularly unique and incredible take on their respective varietal/region - amazing
I find it really hard to wrap my head around the fact that a singular vineyard can produce a singular wine that it head and shoulders above the rest of the appellation. But it definitely exists and is a thing and something I need to come to terms with.
You’re right, of course, but you also reinforce the point of the original post. There are many brilliant vineyards in Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc. There is La Tache and Musigny and Chambertin. And as you say, Lafleur, Haut Brion, and Petrus. But there is only one Rayas. That’s the curiosity.
I was answering a different question than you posed. That being said, I think you read my article on Rayas that attempts to tell you about their unique terroir. It’s quite different than what you find on other CNDP vineyards…
It must be a combination of things. Rayas do seem to have very unique sandy soils to work with. But(!) The full range of reds have that unique Reynaud signature, so the winemaking has to be as important. Some of the new school Grenache we see around the world, like Comando G’s, comes a lot closer to Rayas style than other Chateneauf’s, which enforces my thought of it being a combination of soil and winemaking.
There are a lot of things going on. I think if you look at what the des Tours wines, Fonsalette, and Pignan all share with Rayas, I think that tells you how much the Reynaud style of winemaking is responsible. Low yields, super late harvesting, fully crushed fruit that’s not destemmed, submerged cap macerations with pump-overs for about two weeks, and élevage in neutral wood of a variety of formats are the rudiments of the approach. There are surely some other secrets, too, as no one else to my mind has really been able to hit the same notes (I guess some vintages of Charvin and Chapelle de St Théoderic would be two of the leading contenders).
The next step is to look at what Pignan and Rayas have in common: because both share very similar geology sand, and agglomerated sand / friable sandstone (that the locals call “safre” [sometimes seemingly spelt “saffre”]); and an unusually cool mesoclimate, partly because most of the land the Reynauds own is left as coniferous forest, not planted to vines (both sites are surrounded by trees). Clearly, these two wines are different from the Château des Tours and Fonsalette wines, despite sharing the Reynaud signature, and the respects in which they differ are, I think, owing to the site (there is also the fact that they are more or less pure Grenache, unlike the other Reynaud wines).
The differences between Pignan and Rayas seem to me to be substantially owing to the fact that Pignan has a single uniform exposition, whereas Rayas straddles a small valley and so has three different expositions. The three blocks of Rayas capture respectively the morning, midday and afternoon sun, which I think helps make sense of Rayas’ greater plenitude and aromatic range. In other words, it’s a single climat that delivers the advantages of a blended wine.
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