All-Points Bulletin: Be on the lookout for a luxurious Côtes du Rhône disguised as a $50+ Châteuneuf-du-Pape that has been known to cause complete euphoria—if found, buy all you can and quickly leave the scene. In other words, we want everyone to ignore “Côtes du Rhône” on today’s label because with (a) mature vine real estate that should have been designated Châteauneuf-du-Pape long ago and (b) 16 months of undisturbed aging in large oak foudres, geographically and stylistically, this is a $29 CDP. Plain and simple.
And, there’s also serious exclusivity at play, too: Every year, Clos du Caillou winemaker Bruno Gaspard hand-selects a few high-performing barrels from his cellar and crafts Cuvée Unique specifically for their longtime friend/boutique importer. The result is a limited insider wine that holds immense pedigree and power behind a “pedestrian” label—essentially an undercover Châteauneuf at about half the standard going rate simply because the label says “Côtes du Rhône.” It’s deeply impressive, straightforwardly delicious, and well-worth purchasing in quantity. We typically only get one shot per year at this, so if you’re new around here, allow me to be the collective voice of all previous purchasers: Southern Rhône hardly gets better at this price. There’s a reason we eagerly await every new vintage!
Clos du Caillou is located in Courthézon, a village within the Châteauneuf-du-Pape growing zone, and we always enjoy sharing its “stay off my lawn” origin story: In 1936, 40 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 sizable 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. Check out the “Le Caillou” vineyard in
this link for an even better look at how close it is to some of Châteauneuf’s greatest sites.
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 passing of Jean-Denis in 2002, Sylvie pushed forward and maintained the estate’s legacy with the help of lead winemaker Bruno Gaspard. Driven by Grenache grown in the pebbly, sandy soils of the zone, “Cuvée Unique” is a special selection created each year from the best old-vine lots and, subsequently, the best batches in the winery. The 2017 is a blend of 82% Grenache and 18% Syrah that aged for 16 months in a mix of old foudres (large oak casks) and wooden tanks. To enhance purity and terroir expression, the final wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Always rich yet remarkably smooth—high quality, old-vine, CDP-equivalent Grenache will yield that for you—Le Clos du Caillou’s 2017 “Cuvée Unique” is deep, dense, and powerfully concentrated. Despite its youth, intoxicating aromas funnel out of the glass with flamboyant force, erupting with intense black raspberry and cherry liqueurs, spiced plum, juicy redcurrant, cassis, olive, cracked pepper, perfumed garrigue, lavender, baked earth, and licorice. Rip-roaringly rich and unabashedly full-bodied on the palate, this luxurious tour de force seamlessly blends its polished fruit and savory/spicy/earthy layers without ever weighing down your palate—a magician act all its own. It’s a big, palate-coating wine with fine-grained tannins and a firm structure that tells you this won’t be falling apart in the next two years. So, enjoy this decadent Rhône experience now, in Bordeaux stems at a steady 60 degrees, or match it against some high-dollar CDP labels over the next 3-5 years. You’ll be delighted either way. Cheers!
