Jean-Pierre Boisson, Le Petit Caboche Rouge 2022 Vin de Pays du Vaucluse, to give it its full name, is a quintessential southern Rhône red from the Boisson family’s admirable Domaine du Père Caboche just north-east of Châteauneuf-du-Pape on the road towards Courthézon. Their wines have always been very fairly priced and relatively accessible.
The Boisson family have been making wine in the region since 1777, when Jean-Louis Boisson married Elisabeth Chambellan (after whom their top Vieilles Vignes red cuvée is named), a local blacksmith’s daughter whose dowry included vineyards. The family’s surname Boisson (‘drink’ in French) seems especially appropriate, while the name Caboche derives from the old Provençal word for ‘horseshoe nails’, hence Domaine du Père Caboche. (There are a lot of Fathers, Pères, and no shortage of even more ambitious religious references in the names of Châteauneuf domaines and cuvées, celebrating the fact that the summer residence of the Popes overlooked the village in the 14th century when they were based in nearby Avignon.)
The Boissons own 30 hectares (74 acres) in Châteauneuf as well as vineyard that qualifies as Côtes du Rhône. My choice of today’s wine of the week is one of relatively few I encounter nowadays that still uses the term Vin de Pays, in this case Vin de Pays du Vaucluse.
For many years, Jean-Pierre Boisson (who just turned 80) ran the estate as well as fulfilling the considerable role of mayor of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but he has retired from the cellar and mairie and his daughter Emilie has been in charge of winemaking for some time. Left to right below, Emilie, Nicolas, Jean-Pierre and Éliane Boisson.
The most interesting thing to me about this particular entry-level wine is that, although it tastes like a particularly lively wine from the southern Rhône – sweet and transparent in the Château Rayas idiom – it doesn’t contain a drop of the southern Rhône’s signature grape Grenache Noir.
In fact the assemblage is most unusual: 40% Caladoc (a 1958 southern French Grenache x Malbec cross that we describe in Wine Grapes as ‘reliable’), 30% Marselan (another, particularly successful southern French cross, from 1961, of Cabernet Sauvignon x Grenache that has become especially popular with Chinese winegrowers), 15% Egiodola (a 1954 Bordeaux cross of the south-west varieties Fer x Abouriou) and 15% Syrah.
Perhaps the fact that the resulting wine tastes so southern Rhôneish is a sign of terroir trumping variety? Or perhaps the used foudres in which it spends a short time have imbued this inexpensive wine with the character of the Grenaches previously raised in them?
Vine age probably plays a part. The vines – mainly on the clay soils of Caderousse but there is some Caladoc and Syrah on the alluvial soils of Sorgues – have an average age of 25 years.
No red I have come across recently from this part of the world is low in alcohol and this is 14.5% but it is far from jammy or heavy. Spicy and gentle, it really does taste like a proper artisan wine and manages to be delightfully persistent. I thought it very good value and recommend enjoying it any time over the next couple of years. (There are white and rosé versions too, and I see the 2017 red also found favour, and a VGV rating, with me in 2018.)
Rhône and Loire specialist Yapp Brothers have listed this wine, one of their best sellers, for two decades (and Père Caboche Châteauneuf since 1985). I tasted the current vintage, 2022, at Yapp’s recent tasting in London where I rated it VGV for very good value at £13.25 a bottle. Yes, you can find many a Côtes du Rhône for less, but this has much more elegance about it than most of them.
It’s also sold for just €6.20 by Calais Vins in France (an excuse for a cross-Channel trip perhaps?) and by Saratoga Wine Exchange in the US, Obrist in Switzerland and Rafa-Wino in Poland.
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