2016 CHATEAU CAILLIVET ROUGE “750”

2016 CHATEAU CAILLIVET ROUGE “750”

2016 CHATEAU CAILLIVET ROUGE “750” Deep purple, blue and black fruits explode out of the glass, with cherries, mocha, and sandalwood. Lavender and baking spices open up with air. Medium to full bodied, with gobs of blue fruit from the youthful and playful Merlot. Deep and dark on the backend, with finely integrated and sinewy tannin. Drinking boldly now, with impeccable ability to age.

The 2016 vintage for Bordeaux are two of the all-time greats, rivalling 2009, 2010, 1982, 1961 and 1945. The vintage has earned spot among Bordeaux’s elite vintages. We at Grapes have become incredibly efficient and are known for tracking down not only great vintage Bordeaux, but at times some of the greatest Bordeaux values you will ever find in the marketplace. Today’s offer could possibly be one of the greatest Bordeaux value I have ever been able to secure, in a market where it has become incredibly difficult to find wines of this caliber.
We have the 2016 vintage to offer of Chateau de Caillivet from the left bank village of Grave. The 2016 vintage received 97 from Parker. I tasted the wine last night, and it is nothing short of extraordinary. Chateau de Caillivet is a tiny, 20 acre property on the left bank in Grave owned by a husband and wife team that are making some of the most seamless, bountiful Bordeaux I have tasted in years at the price point. What makes this even better is how they choose to produce their wines.
Beginning in the mid 1990’s, the “Garagiste” wine movement began to form in Bordeaux. A regional band of winemakers had grown tired of how the industry worked in France. Stringent rules and style guidelines that stretched back centuries stymied their creative impulses. Eventually, these winemakers were forced out of regulation-upholding chateaus and left to peddle their products out of unmarked garages and dilapidated warehouses. Small production, estate producers that choose to go against the grain in tradition and make their wines how they see fit. 100pt winemakers like Jean Luc Thunevin and Jonathan Maltus have helmed the movement for years, and the wines from Chateau de Caillivet are made with that philosophy in mind. Cabernet is the dominant grape on the left bank, but Chateau de Caillivet chooses to give Merlot the upper hand, with a 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet blend. The wines remind of a baby version of Chateau Pape Clement, which start around $140 a bottle and is one of the left bank’s most prized possessions.
This is what I call a Saturday/Monday wine – a wine that if you taste on Saturday, you will be ordering more come Monday morning. I guarantee that you will blow your wine drinking pals away with this one – it is so unique, so well made, they will be begging you for our number. Load up on this bad boy for the holidays. This wine will blow you away.