I am convinced many excellent examples of Gigondas are every bit as good as many from CDP. It does not get alot of mention, and it would appear many look down on the area, as being the poor cousin of Chateauneuf. I visited Gour de Chaule among others last year, when I was in the area. This one really stood out, along with Saint Damien.
Recently had a chance to pick up a case of the 2020 Domaine du Gour de Chaulé Gigondas Cuvée Tradition. Considering how young this wine was it sure showed well, as this is a very good winemaker, and a small producer that creates quality wine year after year. This wine has a lot of personality and a lot of depth, and great typicity for the region. The quality of the wine is outstanding, it possesses great purity, wonderful character, strawberry, Asian spices, and dusty tannins, and beats alot of the far higher priced neighboring wineries. The long, silky finish is testament to the highly skilled winemaking.
Several important vineyard sites form this Gigondas, including Gour de Chaulé, Les Blaches, and Les Bousquets. The Grenache vines average well over a half century in age, with low yields of 30-32 hl/ha. The grapes are never destemmed and there is a 3 week cuvaison with a small amount of press juice added back to the cuvée. The wine is racked into large oak “foudres” after malo where it stays for approximately 18 months, being bottled—unfined and unfiltered—three years after harvest.
Established in 1900 in the heart of Gigondas, Gour de Chaulé is now run by the founder’s great-great-grandson, Paul Fumoso. For a time, this was a woman-led property. Aline Bonfils earned fame for the domaine, and was actively involved in making wines and creating domaine bottlings before handing the reigns to her daughter, Stéphanie. The estate is comprised of 15 hectares planted in the surrounding region, 10 of which are within the Gigondas appellation.
Pulled my only Gigondas from the cellar this week, 2019 Moulin de la Gardette. Used 1/2 the bottle in sauce for my lasagne. Drank other 1/2. Actually preferred it to most CdP I have had.
CdP (and its prices) got a huge lift from Parker’s enthusiasm, and his preference for huge wines encouraged that style there. As I recall, the price differential between CdP and Gigondas wasn’t nearly as great 30 years ago.
I don’t think there was much of a spillover stylistically from CdP to Gigondas – you don’t get a lot of monster wines there, though there’s some new oak.
FYI, here’s a picture of Gigondas from January 2017:
I regularly purchase the Gigonda wines from Louis Barruol of St. Cosme and Julien Barrou of Domaine des Bosquets and find them to be compelling (every bit as much as my favorite CdP wines). Just recently, Gigondas has allowed for the bottling of white wines (I love many CdP whites from the last decade) and I am looking forward to the lighter side of Gigondas as well.
I do think there are several other nearby regions that have the potential to rival CdP - which is why Moret and I have started a project (along with Sasha Verhage and the Paly family in France) in Lirac. That certainly has us excited (we brought in the 2023s and have largely sold them out - and are bottling the 2024s at the end of this month).
Defintely a fun time to search for new areas in the Southern Rhone.
Adam Lee
Clarice Wine Company (and Etienne Winery for this discussion)
I definitely recommend staying away from Domaine du Cayron and Domaine Saint-Damien. That way, the prices stay reasonable and there are more left over for me
I believe the St. Cosme single vineyards can go toe-to-toe with any CdP out there (well, maybe except Rayas which I must withhold judgment on since I have never had their CdP). They also have a rawness to them them I preferred over sleeker CdPs. Only problem is they used to be a great bargain, but now the prices have also caught up!
Haha! I’m a big fan of Cayron, always have been. I found Saint-Damien OTT, but it’s been a long time since I tried any, perhaps they have moderated the heavy hand.
Robert, your oil painting and John’s photo are shockingly similar. Very nice painting and John, very nice photo!
As for Gigondas, I recently tried to drink a Sang des Cailloux Vacqueyras Cuvee Lopy, I know, I know not Gigondas, but I just could not get past the grenache. I’m afraid S. Rhone is just not for me.
I’m a big fan of the Gigondases I like. There are as many over extracted wines in the appelation as in CdP though and, if anything, more new oak. One has to select carefully. Cayron, Gour de Chaulé, Raspail Ay, Joncuas and St. Damien have become my go-to wines there. Since I’m an old man, I don’t experiment much anymore, though, so there may be others I would like as much if I bothered to look for new things as I used to. I used to love Domaine les Garrigues (also their Vacqueyrases), but they changed their style completely around 2020 and the change wasn’t to my taste.
I remember some of the St Cosme wines – particularly the Cote Rotie – used to have a heavy dose of new oak which, to me, masked the grapes and terroir.
Is that still the case? In the English part of their website they mention “new casks”; the French version refers to “pièces neuves.” For the basic Gigondas, it’s 12 months with 15% “en pièces neuves - 50% en pièces de 1 à 4 vins,” and in English it’s “15% in new casks - 50% in casks used for 1 to 4 wines.”
That sounds like too much rotation to be very large casks, so I’m assuming these are, if not barriques, then maybe 300 to 500 liters. Does anyone know?
The special Gigondas bottlings get 20% new wood, of whatever size “pièce” refers to.
I don’t think I’ve had more than 4-5 - but despite those having high ratings and the whole CdP-without-the-appelation hype, I haven’t had one that has impressed me. Better than when I have tried Vacqueyras though…
