Châteauneuf-du-Pape

May 16, 2001

Châteauneuf-du-Pape is near the town of Orange, deep in Provence, about 2 hours drive from Mandelieu-la-Napoule. It is the central town in the wine making region known by the same name. It is the best wine growing region in Provence. Naturally, it has many, many caves for sampling the areas creations, but it also has a very old Citadel which used to be the headquarters for the Pope before he packed up and moved to Rome in the middle of the night before the landlord new what was going on. That's how the town got its name. Pape is French for Pope, and it was their château. We visited the town with our friends Andrew and Angela.  Check out the pictures.

Since it was a two hour drive there are certain things a guy just has to do. And when there are no facilities...

Despite what you see above, what gives the regions wines a distinctive flavor is that the soil is very, very rocky. So all the vineyards pile up rocks around there vines to give them extra flavor. The idea is that the rocks get warmed by the hot sun during the day, then give off all of the heat during the night, thereby keeping the vines all nice, warm, and cozy during the cold night. You can see all the rocks in the vineyard picture below.

We found the coolest cave in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, which shouldn't be unexpected. But this one was exceptional. When excavating around the old Citadel they found an old Roman wine vault. So it was modernized a bit and turned into a modern day cave, but with parts of the room left as it was back in the Roman days. It was very, very, impressive. Here are some pictures.

We hiked up to the old Citadel to check it out. It was very old, but pretty much a wall at this point. But we got to walk on the same stair case as Pope Pious the VII, or something like that. We thought it was cool. The first picture is Patti doing some ballet and the second is a bunch of guys hanging out thinking about drinking beer.

Finally, the town itself is a very fine town. Beats the hell out of Entreveux. Here are some pictures.

Last Updated Saturday May 27, 2001 20:06pm CET