We have all come to cherish wines that push their price tag and appellation limits to the extreme, which is why we fiercely fight for Clos du Caillou’s “Les Quartz” every year. And yet, our aggressiveness has resulted in just two total offerings—including today’s newest release. Why all the fuss for a wine we rarely get to showcase, you may ask? Because, although Côtes du Rhône by name, today’s wine is a top-performing Châteauneuf-du-Pape that would easily climb to $60, $70, even $80 if priced accordingly.
The only reason it isn’t labeled as such is because the owners of yore rebelliously
declined the invitation into CdP when officials marked the territory some 80-odd years ago—look up “rebel” in the dictionary and you’ll be redirected to Le Clos du Caillou. I’ll be frank: We’ve offered a generous amount of southern Rhône over the years, from all sorts of elite names, but as far as value for dollar is concerned, this is one of the few that towers above everything. This new release of “Les Quartz” is intensely layered and delightfully fresh as always but it adds on the luxurious, constantly building power of 2017. For all those who have been seeking an extraordinary, value-shattering Southern Rhône, grab a few bottles and take a load off—your long, wearying search is over!
Clos du Caillou is located in Courthézon, a village within the Châteauneuf-du-Pape growing zone, and we love telling their “stay off my lawn” origin story. In 1936, forty years after the property was established as a hunting lodge, France’s AOC governing body approached Caillou’s then-owner with the intention of incorporating it into the ‘new’ Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation. The officials were met with gruff resistance and (literally) raised guns—Caillou’s owner had no desire to join the governing ranks of anything, let alone a wine appellation. This brazen act excluded the estate from the AOC and essentially carved out a chunk of CDP’s border. Today, it continues to be an ‘unclassified’ section in what is otherwise some of the most prized vineyard land in the area.
About 20 years after ‘the lawn altercation,’ Clos du Caillou was purchased by the Pouizin family, who stowed the guns, started planting vines, and began making wine. Over the next four decades, Claude Pouizin made Les Clos du Caillou a household name for premier Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In 1996, the youngest of his three daughters, Sylvie, inherited the operations. At the time, she was living in Sancerre with her husband, Jean-Denis Vacheron (the Vacherons make some of Sancerre’s finest wines). After the tragic death of Jean-Denis in 2002, Sylvie pushed forward and maintained the estate’s legacy with the help of lead winemaker Bruno Gaspard.
Le Clos du Caillou makes “Les Quartz” under two labels: Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Côtes du Rhône—both of which are named after the large quartz stones (galets roulés) that lay atop sandy subsoils. Today’s Côtes du Rhône is sourced from 50-year-old vines in the estate’s walled (clos) vineyards, directly next to “Les Cassanets,” the chosen vineyard for their CdP bottling. Biodynamics have been implemented for 15 years and Caillou has been Certified Organic for the past eight. That means, of course, that vineyard work is incredibly laborious: plowing, crop thinning, the use of organic compost, and hand harvesting. In 2017, grapes for “Les Quartz” were de-stemmed and transferred into cement vessels for an all-natural fermentation. Fourteen months of aging occurred in a combination of oak barrels of various sizes before the Grenache (85%) and Syrah (15%) were blended together. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The newest rendition of “Les Quartz” reveals a deep ruby-crimson core with massive concentration and viscous tears that cling to the edge of the glass. As hedonistic as the ‘16 was, it still doesn’t hold a candle to Clos du Caillou’s 2017s. This is dripping with rich layers of black cherry liqueur, ripe bramble berries, Damson plum, framboise, red and black licorice, garrigue, white pepper, cloves, and a blend of highly aromatic purple/red flowers. The palate is both full-bodied and dense, but high-toned notes and fresh waves of acidity keep the wine from saturating your tongue. Its this buoyancy and vibrancy that makes “Les Quartz” such an enticing wine. There’s never a hint of jammy ‘heat’ you feel on some high-end Châteauneufs. After a 30-minute decant, this reaches a perfect drinking spot, but I expect its peak performance to come sometime around its fifth birthday, so don’t drain all your bottles just yet! When consuming, pour in Bordeaux stems and do your best to keep the drinking temperature around 60-65 degrees. Cheers!
