2015 Chateau les Ollieux Romanis Corbières-Boutenac Cuvee OR 750 ml

Challenges Châteauneuf-du-Pape at a Fraction of the Cost

“This is a seriously good, unctuous beauty that readers need to seek out. Bravo!” If those words had appeared in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate describing a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, you’d expect to pay upwards of $60 per bottle. Instead, those accolades belong to the 2015 Château Ollieux-Romanis Cuvée Or from Corbières-Boutenac, which the Advocate also calls “silky, seamless, powerful and layered,” challenging Châteauneuf at a fraction of the price. For many, this will be the first time hearing of Château Ollieux and the Corbières-Boutenac AOP. Judging by The Wine Advocate’s scores — 92-95 in 2015 — it will be the first of many.

Château Ollieux-Romanis may be positioned as an upstart, but it is anything but. Planted to vine since the 11th century, the Bories family built their own winery and cellar using stones from the estate’s quarry in 1896. Rejuvenating their property a century later, Jacqueline and François Bories wisely stopped short of pulling up aging vines. Now the château owns some of the oldest in the region, many 50-100 years of age.

The Bories’ domaine, now maintained by their son Pierre, is on its way to organic certification. In Boutenac, the only Corbières sub-region deemed worthy of ‘cru’ status, the classic Languedoc varieties Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Syrah achieve bold ripeness in the hot, barren hills. Pierre balances this with freshness imparted by carbonic maceration before going into new French oak and being bottled without fining or filtration.  

The trajectory of Château Ollieux-Romanis is clear: The Wine Advocate wrote that the 94 point  2014 was “Hands down the greatest wine I’ve tasted from this estate.” As the 92-95 score suggests, the 2015 is even better. It will be wise to get in front of demand for a wine that many will soon be chasing after.