2016 Mas de Boislauzon Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee du Quet

Rare Bottles From Châteauneuf Royalty

When we got our shot at the 2016Mas de Boislauzon Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée du Quet, we took every bottle we could, not just because of Boislauzon’s golden reputation, but because we love these wines.

We hadn’t even noticed that critic Jeb Dunnuck, perhaps the world’s foremost authority on Rhône wines, had become a fan as well: His 98-point review of this Cuvée du Quet calls this bottling “a huge, rich, powerful style that never goes over the top and stays balanced and graceful.” This is a fantastic, multilayered old-vine Grenache-Mourvèdre wonder—a breakout year for Quet! 

Thirty years ago, with the exception of the likes of Château de Beaucastel and the top négociant houses, relatively few domaines bottled wine under their own labels. But beginning in the 1990s, fueled by Robert Parker’s palate preference for these extravagant old-vine reds, young winemakers returned to Châteauneuf carrying freshly printed enology and agronomy diplomas and challenged their grape-growing parents to take the plunge.

For decades, the Chaussy family behind Mas de Boislauzon had sold the lion’s share of their harvests to the likes of Chapoutier and Guigal. But in 1999, brother-and-sister winemakers Daniel and Christine Chaussy came home to Boislauzon—and ushered in a new era of change. In what has to go down as the most extraordinary performance for any estate in France, the Chaussy siblings raised the bar after their return to the vineyards, nursing the family’s ancient-vine Grenache to near-perfect phenolic maturity.

In 2001—just two years after the siblings’ winemaking debut—Robert Parker stopped in at Boislauzon to evaluate the work of the new regime. The siblings were off to a running start, but the best was still to come.

The 2016 harvest—a rival to the highly lauded 2015 and 2010 vintages—produced one for the record books in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, allowing the Chaussys to put on a show. Their top wine, this Cuvée du Quet, combines some of the estates’ 70-year-old Mourvèdre with 80-year-old Grenache (it’s worth noting that Beaucastel is distinctive among Châteauneuf for its old-vine Mourvèdre).

Is the 2016 “a massively textured, powerhouse of a wine that has a stacked mid-palate, a bombastic personality, and a great finish,” as Dunnuck contends in his 98-point ode? We think so. But the only way to know for sure is to pop open a bottle at home, perhaps with braised short ribs and garlic mashed potatoes, or a ribeye seared to perfection. Let us know what you think.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.90%
• 1 hour
• Now – 2035
• 80% Grenache20% Mourvèdre
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork