Wine Advisor
Clos St Jean, Chateauneuf Du Pape Deus Ex Machina 2012
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Brilliant ruby. Complex, highly perfumed nose evokes fresh blackberry, cherry, spicecake and violet. Juicy, seamless and sweet on the palate, offering nuanced flavors of dark fruit liqueur, succulent herbs and candied flowers. Densely packed but also lithe and precise, with slow-building tannins giving shape to the wine's exuberant fruit on the long, sappy finish.
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
The 2012 Châteauneuf du Pape Deus Ex Machina is a blend of 60% Grenache aged in foudre (from close to 100-year-old vines) and 40% Mourvedre aged in demi-muids. Its deep ruby/purple color is followed by incredible notes of cassis, roasted meats, licorice, toasted spice and a liquid rock-like minerality. Full-bodied, massive and concentrated, yet also seamless, elegant and incredibly polished, it flows onto the palate with building tannin, no hard edges and perfect balance. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this merit a perfect rating in the future, and it should hit prime-time drinking around age 10, and have 20-25 years of overall longevity. It’s one of the few wines to hit this level of quality in the vintage.
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
The largest-scaled and structured of the lineup, the 2012 Chateauneuf du Pape Dues-Ex Machina is a blend of 60% tank-aged Grenache and 40% barrel-aged (demi-muid) Mourvedre. Deep, concentrated and dense, with a massive core of dark berry and currant fruit, graphite, ground pepper, pan drippings and dusty earth aromas and flavors, this blockbuster effort is incredibly full-bodied in the vintage, yet never puts a foot wrong. My guess is that it will require a handful of years in the cellar and then age gracefully for two decades. Drink 2016-2032. Always one of the highlight visits during my time spent working in the Southern Rhone, Clos Saint-Jean, which includes over 100 acres of prime terroir in Chateauneuf du Pape (mostly in the south), is run by brothers Pascal and Vincent Maurel, with consulting help from the incredibly talented Philippe Cambie. Releasing 5 Chateauneufs in top vintages, they also pair up with Manfred Krankl, of Sine Qua Non in California’s Santa Barbara County, and release another high-end cuvee call Chimere. While the winemaking here is often labeled as modern, it is actually relatively traditional, with the Grenache almost always aged in tank and only the Mourvedre and Syrah seeing time in larger, 500-600 liter oak barrels, or demi-muids. In addition, the cuvees may also include small amounts of whole-cluster fermentation. Regardless of how you classify it, the results speak for themselves and there are few wines in the world I’d rather drink. Importers: Eric Solomon, European Cellars, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565 and Paul M. Young, Los Angeles, CA; tel. (323) 222-2003
About the Producer
Clos Saint Jean is a family estate founded in 1900 by Edmund Tacussel. In 1910 he started to bottle wines with the name Clos Saint Jean. Since 1991 when the owner Guy Maurel died his two sons Pascal and Vincent have carried on at the property. The oenologist Philippe Gambie has since 2003 been assisting at the estate and something has happened: two-three famous special cuvées have merged and all the production became bottled at the domain.
