The growers' union of Châteauneuf-du-Pape was founded in 1923 to win legal protection for the name, with Baron Pierre Le Roy de Boiseaumarié of Château Fortia as its first president. The appellation was recognised by decree on 15 May 1936, one of the first in France. It covers about 3,150 hectares on the communes of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Courthézon, Bédarrides, Sorgues and Orange, and makes only red and white wine, about 93 percent of it red.

The rules allow thirteen varieties, eighteen if the colour forms of Grenache, Clairette and Picpoul are counted apart, and set no proportions between them. Grenache leads most reds, with Syrah and Mourvèdre behind it. The large rolled stones called galets are the best-known image, but the soils vary. Hard limestone lies in the west and sand and sandstone in the east and north, while terraces of galets, often over red clay, cross the north-west and the south. Growers blend these soils or bottle a single one apart. Sand gives finer, silkier tannins, as at the Reynaud family's Château Rayas, a pure Grenache grown on sand, pale in colour yet long-lived.

The reds can be opened after a couple of years and keep for decades. The whites move from white fruit and flowers towards honey and toast with age. At Henri Bonneau & Fils, Henri Bonneau aged the wines for four to ten years in old barrels and foudres, and Le Vieux Donjon raises its red mostly in large oak foudres.

The wines above are the Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines in our cellar. See also the wider Rhône Valley and the neighbouring crus of Gigondas and Vacqueyras.