Winemaker Notes
This wine has an intense red color with brilliant reflections. The nose opens with elegant aromas of cherries, gooseberries and menthol notes, combined with roasted notes. There is a great aromatic complexity. The mouth is structured, ample and round, revealing aromas of fruits with brandy, white pepper and licorice. The finish is elegant, long and greedy.
Blend: 80% Syrah, 20% Grenache
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Quite a discrete style, there's plenty of fruit but no great body or structure. This isn't a negative comment; the wine has good balance, acidity and freshness, making for a very drinkable style. Appealing length, revealing detailed raspberry, star anise, cinnamon and rose petal. Grown half on large pebbles, half on sand in lieu-dit Les Cassanets. Destemmed, fermented in tronconic concrete vats, then matured in amphora.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Quartz is 80% Grenache and the rest mostly Syrah, with the Grenache brought up in demi-muid and the Syrah in barriques. Its deeper ruby hue is followed by a beautiful 2021 offering darker cherry and black raspberry fruit as well as notes of black olive, flowers, and peppery garrigue. This beauty is medium-bodied, has a supple, elegant mouthfeel, quality tannins, and a great finish. It's not going to compete with the top vintages at this great estate, but it's a beautiful, layered, elegant wine.
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James Suckling
A very pure and agile Chateauneuf-du-Pape with notes of red berries, wild strawberries, stones and some peppercorns. Medium body with fine tannins and bright acidity. It has a crunchy and transparent character on the palate with a supple harmony. Great fruit and tension with a succulent finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Perhaps a bit less expansive than some other vintages, the 2021 Chateauneuf du Pape Les Quartz is still a terrific effort. Scents of crushed stone and crystalized red berries appear on the nose, while the medium to full-bodied palate is more linear and crisp. Some readers may even prefer this style of vintage for its focus and restraint. Rating: 93+
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Wine Spectator
Supple in form, with distinctive sanguine meatiness and singed bacon fat underscoring attractive lavender and blue and red fruit. Reveals red tea and salty mineral details on the silky, caressing palate, with grilled apple wood lining the finish. Grenache and Syrah. Drink now through 2032. 700 cases made, 108 cases imported.
—Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
From robust Côtes-du-Rhône to memorable Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Clos du Caillou wines arguably represent some of the finest values in all of France. Proprietor Sylvie Vacheron and winemaker Bruno Gaspard are keeping the great work of the late Jean-Denis Vacheron alive with wines that are heady, robust and mouth-wateringly lush.
Caillou tends wonderfully old Grenache vines, some of which are 70 to 100 years old. With older Syrah and Mourvèdre added to the mix, it’s no wonder that Caillou wines are across the board impressive for their power, extract and deep minerality. The estate’s Chateauneuf terroir borders the impressive domaines of Chateau Rayas and Beaucastel.
Yet many of the Vacheron-Pouizin family's old vines are classified, by a quirk of 1923 politics, Côtes-du-Rhône and Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages. It’s why our Côtes-du-Rhône barrel selections show surprisingly like its kin in Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
In 1996 Jean-Denis Vacheron took full control of the viticulture and élévage at this estate. Under his stewardship, the wines of Caillou steadily gained stature, and today are benchmarks for the appellation. He understood that temperature-controlled fermentation and a cool, clean cellar are necessary to craft wines with refinement and true complexity.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
Famous for its full-bodied, seductive and spicy reds with flavor and aroma characteristics reminiscent of black cherry, baked raspberry, garrigue, olive tapenade, lavender and baking spice, Châteauneuf-du-Pape is the leading sub-appellation of the southern Rhône River Valley. Large pebbles resembling river rocks, called "galets" in French, dominate most of the terrain. The stones hold heat and reflect it back up to the low-lying gobelet-trained vines. Though the galets are typical, they are not prominent in every vineyard. Chateau Rayas is the most obvious deviation with very sandy soil.
According to law, eighteen grape varieties are allowed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and most wines are blends of some mix of these. For reds, Grenache is the star player with Mourvedre and Syrah coming typically second. Others used include Cinsault, Counoise and occasionally Muscardin, Vaccarèse, Picquepoul Noir and Terret Noir.
Only about 6-7% of wine from Châteauneuf-du-Pape is white wine. Blends and single-varietal bottlings are typically based on the soft and floral Grenache Blanc but Clairette, Bourboulenc and Roussanne are grown with some significance.
The wine of Chateauneuf-du-Pape takes its name from the relocation of the papal court to Avignon. The lore says that after moving in 1309, Pope Clément V (after whom Chateau Pape-Clément in Pessac-Léognan is named) ordered that vines were planted. But it was actually his successor, John XXII, who established the vineyards. The name however, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, translated as "the pope's new castle," didn’t really stick until the 19th century.