98pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2021 Chateauneuf du Pape Deus Ex Machina is a strong candidate to be wine of the vintage. A blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Mourvèdre, it combines scents of black truffles and black cherries with hints of cedar and vanilla (the Mourvèdre is aged in new oak, the Grenache in concrete). It's full-bodied and concentrated, supple and almost creamy in feel, then long and velvety on the finish. Bravo.

96pts Wine Spectator

A perfumed, very attractive red, with a generous and heady cascade of ripe steeped plum and cherry flavors. Silky on the lush palate, with polished, perfectly integrated tannins giving textural intrigue. Smoked meat and incense notes mingle with mulling spices and charred apple wood on the finish, which goes on and on. Powerful but not heavy-handed. Grenache and Mourvèdre. Best from 2025 through 2040. 80 cases imported.

96pts Jeb Dunnuck

Possibly the wine of the vintage (at least at this early stage), the 2021 Châteauneuf Du Pape Deus-Ex Machina is a 60/40 split of Grenache and Mourvedre, with the Grenache brought up in foudre and the Mourvedre in demi-muids. Its vivid ruby/purple hue is followed by rock star notes of kirsch, blackberries, cured meats, woodsmoke, and dried flowers. Rich, full-bodied, and concentrated, it’s an incredible effort in this challenging vintage.

95pts Vinous

The 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Deus Ex Machina is this year’s front-runner at Clos Saint-Jean. Made in the usual blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Mourvèdre, its perfume bursts with ripe red and black fruit aromas, melted licorice, roasted almonds, mint and cedar. Vibrant and complex, it offers refreshing acidity, velvety tannins and concludes with an eccentric finish.

Winemaker Notes

Deus ex Machina is a literary and dramatic term for a miraculous intervention that interrupts a logical course of events in a plot or play. A suitable name for a cuvée that had it’s start in the torrid vintage of 2003 when Philippe Cambie and Vincent Maurel made the decision to harvest at the end of September, weeks after their neighbors.