Wine Advisor
Le Clos du Caillou, Chateauneuf Du Pape La Reserve 2019
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
The 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape La Reserve is a full-bodied, velvety-textured wine loaded with dark fruit. Predomiantly black cherries, but with hints of licorice and dark chocolate, it's ripe, rich and clearly loaded with potential—but does it come across as slightly overdone when compared to some of the mythic vintages of this wine, or will it gain elegance during the rest of its elevage?
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
I tasted two bottles of the 2019 Chateauneuf du Pape La Reserve at the domaine. While it doesn't exhibit the knockout florals and intricate complexity of the 2020 version, it's still a wonderfully rich, decadent wine. Super ripe and dark-fruited, it offers up scents of cola, black cherries and blackberries on the nose, is full-bodied, concentrated and velvety on the palate, then finishes long and dusty, with notes of dark chocolate joining the mix. A second bottle showed more red fruit notes and lacked the chocolaty finish, while seeming a bit fresher and firmer. The rating represents a composite score; I wouldn't turn down a glass of either one.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Vivid ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet displays ripe red/blue fruit liqueur qualities along with suggestions of exotic spices, potpourri and smoky minerals. Densely packed and broad on the palate, offering alluringly sweet boysenberry, cherry compote, lavender and fruitcake flavors that show superb delineation and a supporting undercurrent of juicy acidity. Delivers outstanding clarity and a hint of game on a sweet, youthfully chewy, extremely long finish shaped by dusty, slow-building tannins.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
The deep nose of licorice, tobacco leaf and dried cherry pulls you into this very concentrated and beautifully crafted Chateauneuf, the fine and suave tannin carrying the silky finish a long way out there. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Vivid ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet displays ripe red/blue fruit liqueur qualities along with suggestions of exotic spices, potpourri and smoky minerals. Densely packed and broad on the palate, offering alluringly sweet boysenberry, cherry compote, lavender and fruitcake flavors that show superb delineation and a supporting undercurrent of juicy acidity. Delivers outstanding clarity and a hint of game on a sweet, youthfully chewy, extremely long finish shaped by dusty, slow-building tannins.
About the Producer
Our vineyard is rich of traditional red variety, such as Mourvèdre, Syrah, Cinsault, Carignan, Counoise and also some white variety: Viognier, Roussanne, Clairette, Bourboulenc, without forgetting the Grenache, native god red and white. Grounds are worked in the respect of the nature, by regular ploughing without weedkiller and without chemical produce, using only phytosanitary treatment of sulfur and copper in a lower quantity. Grapes are picked by hand and sorting at the vineyard. Grape varieties are vinified separately to respect their own character, aromas and originality. The red vinification is usually preceded by a cold maceration during few days. Pomp-over, punch-down and delestage are made during all the maceration (1 month to 40 days depending on the vintage and the cuvee). The alcoholic maceration start naturally by the wild yeast present on the grapes. We use stainless tanks for the vinification of the white and rose wine and wooden and cement tank for the vinification of the red. Red wines are then aged in foudres and in oak barrels during one year and more, in the underground cellar, built in the safres, with a natural temperature (13 to 15°C). Foudres and demi-muids composed the maturing cellar. Natural cultural practices at Le Clos du Caillou have been started with Claude Pouizin in 1950 : regular plough, organic compost. Since the early years of the vineyard, we put all our efforts to work in a natural way. Thats is why, Jean-Denis Vacheron started the organic agriculture when he arrived on the vineyard in 1996. We got the certification on 2010 vintage. To continue our philosophy, we engage in 2007 in biodynamic agriculture. It permits to produce qualitative grapes by improving the fertility of the soils. Today, it is of major importance to give back to the soils their total vitality. These practices permitted to give to our vines a new youth thanks to the use of horn-manure and silica preparations, sprayed in the vines while respecting the rythm of the cosmos and the nature cycle.
