TN: 9 Bottles of Domaine du Caillou Chateauneuf du Papes & Intro

Tasted Thursday, August 10, 2006 by jamiekutch with 1,043 views

Introduction

Intro by Ross Bott

Domaine du Caillou is ideally located in Chateauneuf du Pape, adjacent to the legendary estates of Beaucastel and Chateau Rayas. It was founded almost a hundred years ago, and has 250 acres of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre vineyards surrounding the chateau, many of which are 75-100 years old. Ironically, a re-survey of the land in Chateauneuf in 1923 found that most of their vineyards were just outside of the legal boundaries of the appellation. This left them with only 23 acres of Chateauneuf AOC and about 125 acres of fine, old vineyards whose wines must be classified as Cotes du Rhone.

The estate has been in the hands of the Pouizin family for decades. Given the age, location, and quality of these vineyards, the domaine has always had a chance to produce very special wines. However, it languished largely unknown; in fact, current owner Claude Pouizin sold most of the crop and wines to negotiants until 1993. In 1996, all this changed when Jean-Denis Vacheron, who had recently married Claude's daughter Sylvie, took over. In the next few years he transformed Domaine du Caillou from invisible to one of the top estates in Chateauneuf. Tragically, in 2002, only six years after he took over, he was killed in a traffic accident. Silvie Pouizin has taken over management since then, and has hired Bruno Gaspard, formerly winemaker at nearby Chateau du Trignon, to make the wines. Although the wines since 2002 remain at a very high level, they have not yet reached the heights of the spectacular 1998 and 2000 vintages under Vacheron.

Last night we tasted nine wines made by Jean-Denis Vacheron from 1998 to 2000. Six of these are Chateauneufs, two more are labeled "Cotes du Rhone" and one "Cotes du Rhone Villages". The latter are all from the old vines surrounding the estate, but because of the re-surveying cannot be called Chateauneuf. However, they are far better than most of the wine coming out of France which is called Cotes du Rhone, which can be many anywhere in the area surrounding Chateauneuf or in the vineyards along the Rhone River extending north. Among the Chateauneufs we'll try are two "Quartz" bottlings (named after the fragments of raw quartz strewn in the vineyards), and the spectacular 2000 Reserve.

Flight 1 (9 Notes)

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