Description

Jean-Marie Royer inherited his vines in 1985 and set about improving the grape varietal mix and the vinification from then. Since more than half of the domaine is in unclassified (‘Vin de Table’) or ‘Côtes du Rhône, he has developed a marque ‘Le Petit Roy’ sold as Vin de Table’ for everything that does not make it into the Châteauneuf cuvées. The Petit Roy has always been a big hit in the shops ever since first joining our list. His Châteauneufs are just gorgeous and offer refreshingly fantastic value for money. He has undoubtedly been much helped his close friend, the late star oenologist Philippe Cambié, who he went to school with and also played rugby with for many years. Cambié was more famous for a full-on rather extracted style, but Jean-Marie imposed his own, fresher, brighter style on all his wines which are crunchy and well-defined, helping cement these elegant expressions of Grenache as some of the finest from Châteauneuf.