Winemaker Notes
Deus ex Machina is a literary and dramatic term for a miraculous intervention that interrupts a logical course of events in a plot or play. A suitable name for a cuvée that had it’s start in the torrid vintage of 2003 when Philippe Cambie and Vincent Maurel made the decision to harvest at the end of September, weeks after their neighbors.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Chateauneuf du Pape Deus Ex Machina is a strong candidate to be wine of the vintage. A blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Mourvèdre, it combines scents of black truffles and black cherries with hints of cedar and vanilla (the Mourvèdre is aged in new oak, the Grenache in concrete). It's full-bodied and concentrated, supple and almost creamy in feel, then long and velvety on the finish. Bravo.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Châteauneuf Du Pape Deux Ex-Machina is a blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Mourvèdre, with the Grenache brought up in concrete tanks and the Mourvèdre in new barrels. It's another dead ringer for a great Burgundy with its bright cherry, framboise, new leather, and floral aromas and flavors. It has beautifully integrated oak, full body, terrific ripeness, and a great finish. It's most likely the wine of the vintage and has the fresher, elegant style of the vintage while still being powerful and layered.
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Wine Spectator
The 2021 Châteauneuf Du Pape Deux Ex-Machina is a blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Mourvèdre, with the Grenache brought up in concrete tanks and the Mourvèdre in new barrels. It's another dead ringer for a great Burgundy with its bright cherry, framboise, new leather, and floral aromas and flavors. It has beautifully integrated oak, full body, terrific ripeness, and a great finish. It's most likely the wine of the vintage and has the fresher, elegant style of the vintage while still being powerful and layered.
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Vinous
The 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Deus Ex Machina is this year’s front-runner at Clos Saint-Jean. Made in the usual blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Mourvèdre, its perfume bursts with ripe red and black fruit aromas, melted licorice, roasted almonds, mint and cedar. Vibrant and complex, it offers refreshing acidity, velvety tannins and concludes with an eccentric finish.
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.