Domaine

La Barroche (Julien Barrot): Chateauneuf du Pape

Whilst this small estate is relatively new to estate bottling (first
vintage 2003) in the list of producers of Chateauneuf, the Barrot family
that owns these 12.5 hectares of Chateauneuf-du-Pape have been
established in the village since about 1400. The average age of the
vines at La Barroche is 60 years old and one third of the vineyards are
more than 100 years old (Grenache). Most of the vineyards of the
estate are located in the north and north-east of the appellation with
just a few plots located close to the town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape on
the southern side. Vinification here is classic with cement tanks used
for fermentation and a mixture of cement and large foudres used for
elevage of the Grenache based components and smaller oak used for
the ageing of Syrah and Mourvedre based components. In the cellar
wine is moved by gravity and done according to the lunar calendar and
weather patterns. The wines of La Barroche are modern in the best
sense, clean, pure and brilliant.

2012 Chaeauneuf-du-Pape Signature

65% Grenache, 16% Mourvedre, 13% Syrah, 5% Cinsault and 1% other
varieties. De-stemmed, macerated on skins for more than 4 weeks and
fermented in cement. The Grenache is then aged in large foudres and
blended with the other varieties before bottling without fining or
filtering.





Christopher Barnes: Laetitia. Tell us about the area where you make
your wine in Chteauneuf-Du-Pape.
Laetitia Barrot: We are located in the area of Chteauneuf-Du-Pape.
We only do red wines, and our plots are mainly located in the north,
northeast area of Chteauneuf, but in different locations, not in a
single plot. We have very old vines that are 65 years old, and now we

have this 100-year-old Grenache. We have plots on the north, on the

road of Orange where you have Cabrires. These plots are normally
known for their river rocks, but we are not on that kind of soil. We're
mostly on slopes where there is sandy soil with some river rocks, but
mostly sandy soils. We also have a plot which is beside Rayas, with
only red, sandy soils.
And that's Chteau Rayas?
Yes, Chteau Rayas.
Which sells for a ridiculous amount of money, right?
Yes, exactly. Even in Chteauneuf it's quite difficult to have bottles.
We have these plots here, and also some plots in the village with
Mourvdre, Cinsault, and Syrah, and two of the very old vines of
Grenache. The primary characteristic of the Domaine is that we have a
majority of sandy soil in our plots. We'll be able to do very elegant and
delicate wines, rather than powerful and masculine wines that you can
have on the river rock soil.

In 2013, the New York Times wine critic, Eric Asimov, wrote this
article where he was very disparaging about the levels of alcohol
that seem to be creeping up every year in Chteauneuf-Du-Pape.
There were two reasons for that, one being people chasing scores.
You know Robert Parker and trying to appease his palate, and
therefore, sell their wine for more. The other possibility is climate
change. What do you think of this, and is this something that you've
had to face with your wine-making?
For us, the alcohol level is not a concern and is not the right question.
What is very important, is to pick up the grapes when they're perfectly
ripe, and in this case, if you pick up healthy grapes with the right
ripeness, you will be able to make a balanced wine and you will not
feel the alcohol, even if it's more than 15 degrees.
We have a very small team of harvest people, and we have
approximately 15 days of harvest, but it can last three to four weeks.
We will start to harvest the plots that are ripe, and maybe we can stop
for two or three days and go to another plot that is ripe, and we will
definitely take our time. Sometimes we will even harvest a plot twice, if

one part is ready and the other part is not ready. In this case, you're
able to have very balanced wines, and you don't feel the alcohol level.
People who taste our wines will not feel the alcohol level.
Are you saying is that it's really the winemaking, and the time when
you pick, that's creating these larger wines, rather than something
endemic to the climate in Chteauneuf changing?
Obviously, the work of the winemaker and the vine grower is related to
the weather, so we have to adapt every year. We don't do the same
work every year, so of course it's related to the climate.
In 2011, we had a very warm summer, for example, so the wines were
more powerful than the '12, for example, which was fresher. We try to
do the best work that we can in the vineyard, because 80% of the
quality of the wine comes from the vineyard, from picking healthy
grapes. In the '11, we did some green harvest to improve the
concentration and the quality of the grapes, and also, we kept 40% of
the stem to improve the freshness. Even on a vintage like the '11,
which is a warm vintage, we have a lot of freshness, and you don't feel
the alcohol level that much.
On the '12, we had a fresher year, so you can feel it in the wine, and it's
a fresher vintage. In '13, we harvested very late, in October. It's also a
vintage that is very fresh with a lot of acidity and a lot of concentration
of fruits and flavors.
I think that every year is different, and even if we say, "Okay. It's
getting warmer," we have some vintages that are warmer than others.
Chteauneuf is interesting because you use a blend of different
grapes. Every estate is a bit different in terms of how they make their
wines. How do you blend and what is the philosophy of blending at
your estate?
We have different plots of Grenache, four plots of 100-year-old vines
and plots of young vines. We also have Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvdre,
and a plot of Vaccarse. We usually vinify the different grape varieties
separately. For the plot that is near Rayas, we vinified it by itself and
made a single Cuve called a Pure, which is 100% Grenache. The other
three plots of 100-year-old vines goes into our Cuve Signature, which
is a blend of 65% Grenache, Mourvdre, Syrah, and Cinsault. We like to

vinify the grape varieties separately, and then age it separately. We

age the Grenache in a big foudre. Syrah and Mourvdre are aged in
600 liter barrels, and the Cinsault in a stainless steel tank for 18 month
before buckling.

Do the percentages change year by year in terms of how you blend
it?
Yeah, it can because it represents the vintage and the production. We
don't try to have the same style of wine every year. It's adapted to the
vintage and the weather we've had. Usually, we represent around 65%
of Grenache, which is representative of our plots. In 2013, for example,
we'll have a Signature with only 55% of Grenache and higher
percentages of Mourvdre and Syrah, because we experienced a very
cold spring and we had a lot of coulure on the Grenache, which means
that not all the flowers turned into berries. We had some grapes with
only a few berries. In Chteauneuf, we like to have a little coulure
every year because it improves the concentration, but in 2013 we lost
50% of our Grenache, so it was a bit too much. The wine shows
wonderful, good concentration and wonderful acidity.
Tell us about the specific wines. You have your flagship,
Chteauneuf-Du-Pape, and then you have a couple other blends that
you have.
Yes. We have the Signature, which is the classic blend of Chteauneuf,
the Pure that I mentioned earlier, 100% Grenache because it's an
homage to the grape that is the most important in Chteauneuf.. We
also have a Cuve, which is called Fiance, and it's 50% Grenache that
comes from another 100-year-old vine, and 50% Syrah. Fiance we
made from 2004 to 2007, and we stopped making this Cuve because
we had too low yields. In 2013, the Syrah was so wonderful that we
decided to blend our best barrel of Syrah with some old Grenache, and
so we'll have very little quantities of Fiance in 2013.
How long has your family been making wine?
Our family has been in Chteauneuf since the 14th century, which is
when the popes arrived in Chteauneuf. Actually, thery were in
Avignon, and they had a secondary residence in Chteauneuf, and they

started to plant vines. It's been very confidential until the 18th and
19th century.
Our family was there since the beginning, and we still have a legal
document saying that we purchased a vine in 1703. It's been a long
time. At that time, being a winemaker and vine grower wasn't a full-
time job. My father took over from his father, who took over from his
father, and worked the vineyards. My father loves working in the
vineyard, and he made his wine, but he sold it in bulk to negociants like
Guillard or Chapoutier. He only bottled the best vintages. He did 2,000
bottles for the best vintages. It's my brother, Julien, who joined him in
2002, who decided to sell our wine in Le Domaine la Barroche, because
we had a beautiful vineyard, so it was nice to do it. The Domaine is
quite new, but on a very old vineyard, and it's an old family of
Chteauneuf-Du-Pape.
Coming from a family that has that legacy in the wine business, is
there a pressure to follow in the footsteps of your father and
become a winemaker, or become part of the family wine business?
Or did you think, "Maybe I'll become a race car driver or a lawyer or
something?"
No, we didn't have any pressure. For example, I left Chteauneuf for
ten years because I wanted to do something else, to discover other
landscapes. I worked for more than ten years in big, worldwide
companies in marketing and commercial. My brother traveled a little
bit. He went to Australia, and to the U.K., but he wanted to be a
winemaker. He did some studies in wine growing and winemaking, but
he wanted to make his own wine. We are really lucky because our
parents have been very supportive, and that allowed us to sell the
wines in Le Domaine la Barroche, and make changes to move forward.
Does your family have a philosophy of winemaking? What is the
thought process behind the wines in terms of the style that you're
going for?
The philosophy is work hard and be humble, because working with the
weather is difficult, and you can't control it. You learn to do the best
you can, but sometimes it's not enough. You're never sure until you
have the grapes in the cellar. You're never sure that you will be able to

produce the vintage. We work hard in the vineyard, it's most of the
work.
The other heritage is that we have a very old cellar that was built in
1930 by our great-grandfather, and it's based on the gravity system.
The cellar is underground. We also have underground concrete tanks
for the vinification. All the grapes comes from the top, and we use the
gravity to manipulate the juice, so we try to be very gentle with the
wines. We prefer to be non-interventionists and to let nature speaks
for itself.
It's been the heritage that helped us last, but the cellar starts to
become a bit too old. For the vines, it's fine, but for the man, it's
difficult to work and to improve it. We are currently finishing the
construction of our new cellar, which will be in front of Clos des Papes
in Chteauneuf-Du-Pape on the plot that we have with the Mourvdre.
This new cellar will be based exactly on the same principles as the old
one. Underground cellar, three levels. We will put the grapes from the
third level, and the vinification part will be in concrete tanks, so we'll
keep it the same, but improve the way it works.
Tell us about the terroir of your estate and how it's different from
other areas of Chteauneuf-Du-Pape.
What is very typical of our Domaine is we that have a lot of sandy soil.
The sandy soil gives a freshness, an elegance, to the wine compared to
the river rocks that are famous for Chteauneuf-Du-Pape, that you
have on plateaus like north of Chteauneuf near Cabrires, Mont
Redon, or also in la Cte. The river rocks will take the heat during the
day and release it during the night, so on the river rocks you don't have
temperature variations between day and night, which gives very
powerful, masculine wines. Our sandy soil are much fresher, and so we
have a lot of elegance in our wines.