2007 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Deus Ex Machina

The Maurel family, with their massive holdings (almost 45 hectares) that include 12 hectares in the prime La Crau vineyard, have long been suppliers of top-quality fruit to the negoce but have moved steadily to bottling all of their production. This process has been completed with the construction of an extensive new cellar and chai that replaces the old, cramped facility attached to their home in the center of the village. Recent vintages have proven kind to the Maurels' style of fruit-driven, opulent wines made under the consultation of enologist Philippe Cambie, and fans of this estate began lining up for the 2007s while the grapes were still on the vine. Vincent Maurel shared a few funny but at the same time pathetic stories of the lengths to which people have gone to get their hands on their top cuvees, stories that involved birth years, baptisms and perhaps even incurable diseases. "Wine obsession can be pretty frightening," he laughed.

"Two thousand six is in the same family as 2004, with excellent freshness and balance of fruit and tannins," Vincent Maurel told me. "But 2007 is a different animal completely as it has the power and richness of 2005 and 2003 but with outstanding energy. It is undoubtedly a great vintage for us and will age for as long as 2005. But it will be much more approachable as the tannins are less hard. " Maurel's Vieilles Vignes bottling is a cuvee reserved for the American importer. If you see it in Europe, it is there via the grey market-and if you see the classique in the U. S. it is likewise a grey-market bottle.