TN: Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas "Hautes Garrigues" 2000

Alex_Anthopoulos · July 9, 2009, 9:59am

This wine is currently in a very nice window … it opens with an aromatic and complex nose of crushed dark berry fruit, minerals, peppercorn and of course, garrigue. With velvety tannins and loads of fruit, this is more of a “refined” and not-so-rustic Gigondas, including a long finish. 91 / 100 points.

Alex

Paul_Jaouen · July 9, 2009, 12:07pm

Thanks for the note. I really like this wine but I never buy a lot of it. Always 2 or 3 in good vintages. Not sure why.

Jody_Smith · July 9, 2009, 1:58pm

This really is a nice wine. I haven’t had the 2000, but I’ve had the 04 a couple of times over the last few months. I preferred it to other recent southern wines including the 03 Pegau and 06 Clos des Papes. While the later wines were more refined, the Santa Duc was much more interesting in aromatics, fruit, concentration and minerality.

Loren_Sonkin · July 9, 2009, 2:01pm

Thanks Alex. I have a couple of these I need to get to.

Daniel_Posner · July 9, 2009, 2:08pm

It is not 98 points?

Chris_Kissack · July 12, 2009, 6:12am

Thanks, it is interesting to see this note on this wine. I don’t have a lot of experience of it, as I find myself buying less and less Rhônes these days, mainly because the style of some wines - particularly the Southern, Grenache-based wines - just doesn’t appeal anymore. The 1998 Hautes Garrigues was a good example of this, just too soupy and hot for me. I have a bottle of the 1999 lined up for a forthcoming 1999 horizontal tasting so I guess I will get a look at what it is like in a slightly cooler vintage…I suspect it might be more to my taste.