The most famous, if not famous, wine from the Rhone is without a doubt Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The vineyards are in the immediate vicinity of the city of Avignon, which once housed a Papal castle. Bottles of this often robust wine usually bear a Papal coat of arms.
This part of the Rhone valley is the widest part. While the river just to the north (Condrieu, Côte Rotie) is relatively narrow with very steep slopes, the opposite is visible in the southernmost part. The river forms a delta there, it is wide and flat. The bottom is strewn with large worn gravel, supplied by the river called 'Galets'. You can see this layer of gravel meters thick in the vicinity of Tavel, but certainly also around Avignon. The sun burns brightly, so that the stones store heat during the day and then release it again in the evening. In the cool of the evening it is curious to feel the heat coming out of the ground. In addition to pebbles, there is also sandy soil and calcareous clay. The 'white soils' (stone-bearing sandy soils with lime) of Lauze have a very high lime content and are called 'Terres Blanches'.
Château de Manissy dates back to the 17th century and belonged to the Lafarge family at the time. Since there was no successor in that family to continue the domain, it was donated to the church. It was those church brothers who planted the vineyards in Tavel and at the beginning of the 20th century their first harvest was brought in. Because the denomination itself had reached an advanced age in 2003, the vineyard management was transferred to Florian André, a young winemaker from Tavel.
Florian, 7th generation in the wine family, immediately started the 'conversion' to organic cultivation. He attended university courses in both Orange and Beaune. In Burgundy he did an internship at the famous Domaine Armand Rousseau in Gevrey-Chambertin. He also followed internship courses in Bordeaux. There he worked for the famous Lurton family in Margaux, owners of the Grand Cru castles Brane Cantenac, Dufort Vivens and Ferrière. Even on these top castles work sustainably and in many cases also biodynamically. In 2021, all Château de Manissy vineyards have been converted to biodynamic culture and are now also biodynamic certified (Demeter).
