Mayard - Chateauneuf-du-Pape 'La Crau de Ma Mere' 2017 (750ml)

Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc is a truly under-appreciated wine in The United States. We're here to change that.  These wines are unfamiliar to many American drinkers as they are not at all like Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling or any Italian varieties. They have a corner of the palate all their own.

They can be quite velvety and rich like the Font du Loup we carry. This wine is a nice counterpoint to that style. It's more crisp, racy and woodsy. It's got it's own sort of richness, a resinous quality in the mouth; but it's not at all like the brown-butter-nutty richness.

It's also got a bit of mineral/gunpowder or post-lighteningbolt electricity to it. Exciting stuff.   

Vignobles Mayard is nestled in the heart of the prestigious village of Châteauneuf du Pape. It is currently managed by Françoise and Béatrice Mayard, the fifth generation of owners.
The estate is spread across 43 hectares, featuring a huge diversity of terroirs and grape varieties. The rigor and passion that the team brings are reflected in three vintages, each the fruit of the work of successive generations.
 
The vineyard covers 43 hectares of vines that include two large plots: a 21-hectare plot in Grand Coulet, in the southern part of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, with sand and clay subsoil and pebbles on the surface from Alpine diluvium; and an 8-hectare parcel to the east, on the famous Crau plateau, made up of clay and molasse from the Miocene period. The entire estate covers around thirty parcels of land spread across highly diverse terroirs, some of them planted over a century ago.
 
The Domaine is fully committed to environmentally-friendly sustainable agriculture. Their cultivation methods are traditional and fully ecological: rather than using chemical fertilizers and weed killers, they work the soil with machines and put in a great amount of manual labor at each stage of the vines’ growth cycle.

White Grenache, Roussanne, Clairette, Bourboulenc Picpoul