Grapelive Daily Pick
By Kerry Winslow
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2000 Domaine du Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape “Les Quartz” (Vacheron-Pouizin) Rhone, France.
What a joy to get a chance to taste a top Chateauneuf at its peak, with nice bottle age, and this one especially as I had tried it when it was released, about 7 years ago. The “Les Quartz” is a reserve wine and a unique barrel selection cuvee from Caillou’s best rocky plots. After almost a decade this wonderful and still fresh Chateauneuf-du-Pape is just now reaching its heights and giving everything it promised, opening with a mature note before reviving itself and showing lively and vibrant fruit and firmness. This wine is pure terroir and focused grace with bright acid and smooth refined tannins with complex layers that flow with elegance and seamless style. The nose is full of dried flowers, rocky mineral and earthy, but the mouth is fresh fruit all the way and has a beautiful violet and black currant burst to start before lush red fruits and lavender come to the fore. This wine shows some Grenache like strawberry, grenadine and kirsch notes with added depth coming in with blackberry, cassis, cherry and plum fruits as well as pepper spice. Wow, it was so lucky of me to have the time to savory such an amazing wine over a few hours and it kept adding details and flavors with every minute very much like great Burgundy can. ($65 Release price) 94-95 Points, grapelive
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