2017 Famille Perrin Les Sinards Chateauneuf-du-Pape 750 ml

Beaucastel provenance typically comes with a Beaucastel price: The Southern Rhône icon’s entry-level bottling goes for $100, while their top release eclipses $500. 

That’s why we grabbed all we could of the Perrin family’s stunning 2017 Les Sinards, a Châteauneuf-du-Pape overachiever that boasts Château de Beaucastel’s singular terroir—and barely gives an inch to big brother. 

That’s because it’s made from the exact same terroir as Beaucastel: Sourced from young vines at Château de Beaucastel and accented by grapes from another Perrin-farmed property just to the west of that iconic terroir, this bottle exudes everything we adore in first-class Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

This is the kind of value that usually requires us to scour the cellars of under-the-radar Châteauneuf producers—yet today, it comes from one of the biggest and best names in the region. It’s a can’t-miss bottle for red wine lovers who wouldn’t mind stocking their cellar with the legendary Perrin family’s rich, age-worthy Châteauneuf-du-Pape for less than half the price of their world-famous flagship.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate didn’t mince words when the Les Sinards was on the table, proclaiming the wine “deserves to stand on its own.” Wine Enthusiast concurs, with a 94-point score and Editors’ Choice recommendation. Driven by an explosion of dark brambly fruits, licorice, and wild game accents that emerge the second the cork is popped, the 2017 Sinards is defined by a long and rich palate that promises a decade of graceful evolution. 

Château de Beaucastel consists of a single property in the northern section of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where the vines that grow in the stiff Mistral winds deliver excruciatingly low yields and massive concentration of flavors. On that sacred Châteauneuf soil, the Perrin family taps the younger vines for Les Sinards, combining that stellar fruit with grapes from a family-farmed plot just west of the iconic terroir.

The result, as Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate pointed out, stands on its own—and not just because of its quality. Unlike the Beaucastel blend, which contains all 13 grape varieties and about 30% Mourvèdre, Les Sinards sticks to a more traditional Châteauneuf-du-Pape cépage. The lion’s share is rich, ripe Grenache, rounded out by brooding Mourvèdre and spicy Syrah. 

In the cellar, however, Les Sinards is produced by the Beaucastel book. The hand-harvested grapes are vinified separately, blended, then aged for over a year in oak foudres. The result, in a 2017 vintage that proved to be the driest in three decades, is a beautifully concentrated dark-fruited Châteauneuf bursting with garrigue, wild game, licorice, and all the telltales of its first-class terroir.