{"product_id":"chateau-rayas-chateauneuf-du-pape-reserve-blanc-2014","title":"Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve Blanc 2014","description":"\u003cp\u003eChâteau Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve Blanc 2014 is a Clairette and Grenache Blanc white from Rhône with golden fruit and quiet power in the cellar. This rare Rayas white has a mature 2014 glow and a dry waxy palate. Apricot, quince and orange peel sit over the calm spice of old foudres.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChâteau Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve Blanc 2014 comes from the Reynaud family’s Rayas holdings inside Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the southern Rhône. Clairette and Grenache Blanc share the blend, giving this white a local identity that is separate from the estate’s famous red Grenache. The Clairette side shows through pale florals next to the golden Grenache Blanc fruit. The vines draw from sand with scattered galets roulés, a soil mix named in the texture as much as in the aroma. Rayas is unusually linked with pale sand in a district many drinkers picture through rounded stones. In this 750 ml bottle, the dry 13.5 percent wine already shows the golden colour of a mature 2014 white.\n\nAfter harvest, the wine was aged in old large French oak foudres. The large casks mark the wine quietly, with vanilla husk, beeswax and a rounded mid-palate. The élevage has left a calm imprint of old cellar wood and warm spice. The 2014 carries apricot and quince in broad layers rather than sharp lines. A line of orange peel sits under the waxy fruit on the last sip.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTasting Notes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDeep gold in the glass, the 2014 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve Blanc opens with ripe apricot, quince paste and honeysuckle in a mellow register. Beeswax, orange oil and a touch of vanilla sit inside the fruit, so the aroma feels polished and gently spiced like the inside of an old wooden cellar. The palate is full and creamy, with dry extract and 13.5 percent alcohol giving the wine a broad shape across the tongue and a tactile lanolin note that belongs to this mature Rayas blanc. Saline notes appear through the middle, followed by bitter orange peel and a long finish that keeps returning to quince and warm wax after each swallow for minutes. Drink 2025-2035.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePour Château Rayas Reserve Blanc 2014 with turbot roasted on the bone, especially if the fish is finished with brown butter, lemon and a few fennel seeds for the wine’s golden fruit. For seafood, scallops with cauliflower purée and orange zest pick up the wine’s apricot and citrus peel notes, and the creamy texture handles the sweetness of the shellfish. A Rhône table suggestion is pike quenelles with Nantua sauce, a Lyonnais dish whose airy texture and crayfish sauce meet the wine’s waxy depth. For poultry, choose roast chicken with morels or guinea fowl with cream and tarragon, then let the old-foudre vanilla echo the sauce. Aged Comté or Beaufort also fits this bottle after dinner, especially when the cheese has nutty crystals and enough salt to match the long orange finish.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProducer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChâteau Rayas is the Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate that makes many seasoned tasters think first of sand before stones, and that single detail sets it apart in a village famous for sun-warmed galets roulés across the southern Rhône. Its main parcels sit in a secluded tree-framed sector of the appellation, with pale sandy soils that show in the glass through perfume and a strangely weightless kind of power in the mouth. The Reynaud family has kept the domaine intensely personal through successive generations, and Emmanuel Reynaud now guides Château Rayas alongside Château des Tours, Fonsalette and Pignan with a famously low public profile. The Reserve Blanc occupies a small place in the story of the estate and carries its own identity through waxy depth, old-foudre savour and a pace that feels unhurried from the first pour especially in mature vintages such as 2014. Rayas labels look almost disarmingly plain on the table, with cream paper and modest lettering that suit a domaine known for silence around exact quantities and release patterns, which adds to the private feel of opening a bottle. In the 2014 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve Blanc, that discretion meets a golden white wine scented with apricot skin and quince over honeysuckle and measured vanilla from old wood after a decade in bottle.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chateau Rayas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54252879085905,"sku":"PS-15364539842940","price":915.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0874\/0614\/9969\/files\/dwadasdddaldal_73310825-5190-48a4-b5cf-38e1af0f1fb6.png?v=1783447553","url":"https:\/\/bottlehero.com\/products\/chateau-rayas-chateauneuf-du-pape-reserve-blanc-2014","provider":"Bottle Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}