Wine Advisor
Le Clos du Caillou, Chateauneuf Du Pape Les Safres 2016
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Vivid ruby-red. Highly perfumed red and blue fruit and floral pastille aromas are complemented by Asian spices and smoky mineral flourishes. Juicy and focused on the palate, offering sweet cherry and raspberry liqueur flavors that become deeper and spicier as the wine opens up. Shows impressive power and breadth on a very long, floral-accented finish shaped by supple, harmonious tannins.
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
The 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Les Safres delivers crisply defined cherry fruit, a richly tannic mid-palate and a long, focused, velvety finish. It looks likely to need a bit of cellaring but to be capable of aging up to two decades.
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
Sourced from the lieu-dit of Les Bédines, the 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape Les Safres is 95% Grenache, with the remainder being a mix of other permitted varieties. Like the other wines from Le Clos du Caillou, it shows great intensity and purity. Flowering garrigue accents black cherry fruit in this full-bodied, fresh, vibrant and intense wine, which ends with a burst of bright orange zest and waves of silky tannins.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
Immense, seamless depth. Alluring, fresh, dark-plum, spice and chocolate aromas and flavors. The tannins are immaculately plush, long and even. Superb. From organically grown grapes. Drink in 2020.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Vivid ruby-red. Highly perfumed red and blue fruit and floral pastille aromas are complemented by Asian spices and smoky mineral flourishes. Juicy and focused on the palate, offering sweet cherry and raspberry liqueur flavors that become deeper and spicier as the wine opens up. Shows impressive power and breadth on a very long, floral-accented finish shaped by supple, harmonious 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.
