This journey was developed for a wine enthusiast that was spending a week at a rental villa near Avignon. Starting with Châteaneuf-du-Pape and Château Beaucastel, we continue on to Gigondas to taste with a small high-end wine maker.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Châteauneuf-du-Pape, located between Avignon and Orange, spreads out at the foot of the remains of its fortress castle. The village looks over the plain of Comtat and 3 000 hectares of vineyards. In the 14th century Pope Jean XXII chose Chateauneuf as the location for his summer residence, and then decided to plant vines on the stony land which surrounded their landholdings. For a long time the wine production remained a secret but started to become well known in the 18th century. In 1929 that it was officially recognized and bestowed with it's own appellation - Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The soil in the appellation is covered with round river stones, one of the secrets of the outstanding Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine. The stones act as storage heaters, soaking up the Provencal sunshine during the day, then releasing the heat long into the night, helping the grapes to ripen. In the village you can visit numerous beautiful fountains including the 14th century Souspiron fountain, the ancient bread oven and olive press and the Papal castle built by his holiness Pope Jean XXII between 1316 and 1333. Wide stone staircases take you up to the fortress where the Popes lived until 1377, when they returned to Rome. The fortress was badly destroyed by fire during the religious wars and then further damaged in 1944. Little remains apart from a short stretch of wall, one of the high towers and a lower room. However from the ruins there is a 360 ° panoramic view of the Rhône valley , the Luberon, Avignon and the Papal Palace which can be seen in the background. At the exit to the village there is an interesting little museum of wine making equipment at the Anselme vineyard. The Museum displays a large collection of wine making tools and machinery some of which date back to the 16th century. These include a wine press, barrels and numerous cork screws.

Gigondas
The old village of Gigondas rises up from the surrounding vineyards, past ancient houses to the 11th-century Ste.Catherine's church, with its central clock tower flanked by the campanile belfry and the old sundial. The ruins of the ancient fortifications extend up from the rocky ridge high above the village, and most of the old defensive wall still runs down from the top along the east edge of the village. High to the right, the ruins of the castle of the Princes of Orange still stand sentinal over the village and vineyards below. Gigondas has run amok with modern sculpture in the upper part of the village. Whether you like the sculptures or not, there's enough variety that you're bound to find at least some of them interesting. To the north of the village, on the road up to the Dentelles Montmirail, the ancient Chapelle Sts-Côme-et-Damien extends up out of the forest on a hilltop, giving an added medieval feeling to Gigondas.