Might someone gently lead me, a neophyte, to a site or post that spells out story behind the Chateau Rayas and Rayas-adjacent bottlings? As in where they came from and what’s in them? Because there seem to be a lot with similar names that mean very different things. A few posts try to straighten out the differences between some of them, but I’m looking for a grand explanation of all the nooks and crannies.
5 Likes
Oh, great - perfect, thank you.
1 Like
I have been into all things Rayas for quite aome time and I am certain there are nooks and crannies I have no idea about.
Try some of the wines and see if you like them
Great advice - I’ve had a few of them: Rayas Pignan, Chateau des Tours Cotes du Rhone, Domaine des Tours Clairette - but I was confused about the relationships among all the wines. I also bought a Merlot and a Merlot/Syrah from Domaine des Tours, which is a different entity than Chateau des Tours, and I wondered what exactly was going on with that.
Just for clarification: Chateau des Tours and Domaine des Tours is the same property, Chateau is for the AOC- wines Cotes-du-Rhone and Vacqueyeas, Domaine is for the Vin de Pays …
Thank you - I know how that might seem like clarification 
, but details like that are why I wanted the bigger picture.
Had a Tours CdR this week (first time with that particular bottling) and it had the silky strawberry signature I ascribe to Rayas style. Well worth the price of admission, which was high for a CdR, but not crazy high.
Cheers,
fred
1 Like
As you already know the Reynaud family own two properties; Chateau Rayas and Chateau des Tours.
The wines made at Chateau Rayas are the Rayas CdP, the Pignan CdP and the Fonsalette CdR. The Ch. Fonsalette comes in a standard CdR version and a Cuvee Syrah which is 100% Syrah. The labeling for these wines do not change.
The release of vintages is 10+ years later. This year I received an allocation of 2013s for all three. Because the volumes were way down for the 2013 vintage especially for the Ch. Rayas Rouge, they included some make up volumes of the 2012, 2011 and 2010 Ch. Rayas Rouge as well. This late release of the wines is a feature of how the Reynauds choose manage things.
Ch. des Tours wines are more confusing in terms of labeling and what made and when it is released. I certainly do not understand all the wines and labels here!
For example they make a standard CdR that is released at around 4 years (so this year it was the 2020). They also release an older wine that is about 5 years older. This has been labeled as Ch des Tour Vacqueyras or Ch des Tours CdR Grande Reserve. The 2013 it was labeled appelation Vacqueyras. but the 2014 and 2015 are labeled as CdR “Grande Reserve”. It has been speculated that complying with Vacqueyras AOC regulations is not something that is important to them.
As I said this kind of stuff is not unusual for the Reynaud family - who always march to the beat of their own drum…
Brodie
2 Likes
Thanks for spelling this out - and confirming that the des Tours are more confusing. For instance, unless I skipped over something, neither of the articles linked above mentions the Domaine des Tours Vaucluse Réserve Merlot-Syrah, though cellartracker shows it’s been around since 1999.
Never seen the Merlot-Syrah but have come across the Merlot exactly once, in a shop in Ribeauville where the retailer brought a bottle from the back thinking it could be something interesting for me (it was). I regularly buy from retailers who sell Reynaud wines and never have I seen them offer the Merlot, so I guess it is produced very rarely.
Last year’s offer included
IGP Merlot 2007
IGP Merlot Syrah 2007, 2008
I also saw both bottlings in 2004 and 2005, all around 20 Eur.
I might still have an IGP Merlot 2001 somewhere, but this bottle is no more
2 Likes
I thought Chateau Fonsalette was its “own” domaine and the third red wine from Chateau Rayas was Pialade? Anyways it is confusing! 
My understanding as well. Pialade and Pignan are under Rayas.
Fonsalette, red, white and Syrah are all CdRs owned and made by Rayas. Pialade, which, to my mind, is a perfectly nice wine, but not worth seeking out, doesn’t approach Fondalette in quality.
1 Like
How do you compare Fonsallete to Pignan?
My contact prices them close to the same.
Fonsalette is made and sold at Ch. Rayas, but yes it comes from its own and different (from Rayas and Pignan) vineyards.
There are only two winemaking facilities - Rayas and des Tours
1 Like
It is also a much cheaper wine. Grey market just went crazy for Pialade after the 2014 was released.
Frankly, at the prices they now sell in the US, I am not a buyer for any Reynaud wine. If I were ten or fifteen years younger and I could buy them ex domaine, I would buy every cuvée of Rayas, Pignan and Fonsalette they would sell me. From the few bottles of these wines that I bought in the early 90s, I would put Pignan above Fonsalette CdR, and think of the Syrah as a special wine, hors gamme, not to be measured but to be appreciated for the unicorn it is.
I do buy the des Tours wine here and they are special. But, again, I wouldn’t buy them in the US.
And Chateau des Tours blanc (100% grenache blanc) is for some reason no longer CdR, now it goes by the name Les Tours, IGP Vaclause.