The curious origins of white Châteauneuf du Pape

I hadn’t been to Ch de Beaucastel on the northern edge of the Châteauneuf du Pape zone for a shockingly long time so it was fascinating to spend some time there with François, the Beaucastel winemaking one of the three Perrin brothers, yesterday morning. (Just 4 km away they have another much bigger enterprise making a wide range of Rhône wines such as La Vieille Ferme and their Perrin labels from fruit grown off the estate.)

The sun was that particularly brilliant December sort – low-slung and chiselling all sorts of wonderfully sharp shadows, as well as a crimson veil over the...