Château Rayas
Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC
Grenache grown in sand beneath the pines, and the most singular wine in Châteauneuf.
No deposit, no obligation. Lamont’s contacts you before the release.
The Allocation Program
- Principal variety
- Grenache
Availability
Timing to be confirmed
Nothing listed yet
Access
By allocation
For Lamont’s clients
Why we follow Château Rayas
The estate
The great idiosyncratic estate of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, owned and run by Emmanuel Reynaud, who took over in 1997 after the sudden death of his uncle Jacques. The family bought Rayas in 1880, and grandfather Louis and uncle Jacques built the legend. Emmanuel is the fourth generation and had already been running the family's Château des Tours before inheriting Rayas.
The vineyards
Around 10 to 12 hectares of vines on the estate's distinctive cool, sandy soils — sable over safre — the antithesis of Châteauneuf's typical galets roulés, in pine-fringed parcels at Le Couchant and Le Levant. The sand and the cooler north-easterly aspects give Rayas its ethereal, un-Châteauneuf lightness of touch.
In the glass
Rayas rouge is famously entirely Grenache, extraordinary in an appellation that permits thirteen varieties. The winemaking is traditional, low-tech and low-intervention, with long ageing in old wood and a deliberately understated cellar. Rayas is defined by contradiction: a Châteauneuf that tastes almost Burgundian, made from pure Grenache on sand, in a famously ramshackle cellar, by a famously reticent owner. Pignan and Château des Tours are the connoisseur's value entry points into the Reynaud style.
With Lamont’s
Offered through Lamont’s Allocation Program. Register your interest and we will contact you when the next allocation is confirmed.
The wines
Request individual wines, or register interest in the whole estate. We will contact you when an allocation is confirmed.
The whole Château Rayas range
For collectors who would consider any available Château Rayas allocation, across every tier.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Château Rayas
Entirely Grenache, from sand; the estate's defining wine.
Pignan
A separate lieu-dit on stonier soil, also Grenache, at roughly a fifth of Rayas production.
La Pialade
A younger-vine blend from the Châteauneuf area.
The wider Reynaud estates
Château de Fonsalette
Côtes du Rhône
Château des Tours
Vacqueyras and Côtes du Rhône
Release and availability
How it works
- 1Choose a producer.
- 2Register your interest.There is no purchase or commitment.
- 3Lamont’s contacts you before the release.
Next expected release: To be confirmed. Timing is indicative and can move with the producer or the vintage. View the allocation calendar
Saved to your request.
You’re registered, and we’ll contact you when the next allocation is confirmed.
You’re registered for:
How allocations are offered
It records which producers and wines interest you, so we know who to contact when a release is confirmed.
Availability depends on what arrives and how many customers are waiting. In some years there is very little to go round.
Our team considers purchase history, genuine interest and intended enjoyment. We would rather a case went to someone who will open it and tell us what they thought than to whoever asked first.
Change your requests at any time from My allocation requests. Release timing moves with the producer and the vintage, so the months on the release calendar are a guide rather than a promise.
Explore the Allocation Program
See upcoming releases from Château Rayas and other benchmark estates.