More about Domaine La Barroche

Châteauneuf-du-Pape has a reputation for power, but La Barroche plays a different game: sandy soils, century-old Grenache and a winemaker who would rather have finesse than muscle.

The Barrot family has farmed in Châteauneuf for generations, and Christian Barrot has tended its vines since the early 1970s. But for years the wine was sold off in bulk, until his son Julien joined in 2002 and began estate bottling. Julien and his sister Laetitia now run 12.5 hectares in the north and northeast of the appellation, where half of the Grenache vines are more than a hundred years old. The prize parcel, Grand Pierre, sits on fine sand right next door to Rayas and was planted to Grenache around 1900.

Julien farms organically (without certification) and stopped green harvesting in 2015 to keep freshness up and alcohol down. Each grape variety and many parcels are vinified separately, with native yeasts and long, gentle macerations in tulip-shaped concrete tanks in a gravity-fed winery.

The range runs from the Julien Barrot cuvée (once called Signature), a blend across the estate's terroirs, to Pure, almost entirely old-vine Grenache from a single parcel and made in the quantity of a single foudre each year. Don't miss Pure Blanc either: 100% Clairette from the fine, iron-rich sands of Pialons, and a rare single-variety white Châteauneuf.