History of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine-growing area

Pope John XXII (1245–1334), the first Pope based in Avignon (1316) was the one who started developing the Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine-growing area. Seeking to swell the coffers of the ‘decentralized’ Papacy, John XXII had brought with him to Avignon bankers and wine-growers from Cahors (where he was born), who laid the foundations for the Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine-growing area. He had the Popes’ secondary residence built at Châteauneuf, making economic growth and development of the winegrowing area even easier.
The fame of the wine-growing area would grow throughout the following centuries, to the point that it was served at the court of Louis XVI. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the wine-growing area was mainly run by the local aristocracy.

After the phylloxera crisis in 1860, the Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine-growers formed the first ‘wine-growers’ consortium’ (1894), to guarantee the quality of the wines. This later became the ‘Consortium of Châteauneuf-du-Pape Wine-growers’ (1923), with a view to obtaining delimitation of the area of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Appellation, under the Act of 1919. Baron Pierre Le Roy de Boiseaumarié (1890–1967) was the first Chairman, later becoming the Chairman of the Institut national de l’appellation contrôlée.