Domaine Clos des Papes is located in the Châteauneuf du Pape appellation, where this historic 32-hectare estate has been run since the 17th century by the Avril family, who produced their first vintage in 1896. The Domaine Clos des Papes is now run by Paul-Vincent, son of Paul Avril who died in 2009. Clos des Papes holds almost 24 parcels, each with different characteristics, both in terms of climate and soil, which can be stony or clayey, for example. This diversity has enabled the estate to grow several grape varieties, which are pruned differently. Most of the red grape varieties are Grenache (65%), Mourvèdre and Syrah, but there are also more rare appearing varieties such as Vaccarès, Muscardin and Counoise. White grape varieties are represented by white grenache, marsanne, roussanne, clairette, bourboulenc and picpoul.
There are 32 hectares cultivated now and the grapes are harvested manually with four selective sortings. For the red wines, the grapes are destemmed, followed by fermentation with indigenous yeasts and malolactic fermentation. The wines are then matured for a year in used tuns, with no filtration, just simple fining. As for the white wines, they are vinified in whole bunches without malolactic fermentation.
The distinctive feature about wine types is that the majority of the estate’s wines are reds (80% of production), while whites account for 20%. However, there is only one white and one red wine in the Châteauneuf du Pape appellation.
The diversity of grape varieties facilitates the estate to offer wines with rich aromatic palette, with the character of strong ageing potential, as shown by some of the vintages available in our catalogue.
