Gigondas

The 2015 Gigondas was slightly closed and backwards on this occasion and was much more expressive when I tasted it at the domaine earlier in the year. Nevertheless, it has a beautiful bouquet of cassis, leafy herbs, basil and exotic flowers as well as medium to full-bodied richness, ripe, sweet tannin and plenty of length.

Not yet bottled, the 2015 Gigondas offers the classic, wild perfume of the estate with notes of basil, leafy herbs, plums, and pepper all soaring from the glass. Like the 2016, it's a ripe, rounded, beautifully concentrated effort that's going to keep for a decade. Unquestionably one of my favorite estate in Gigondas is that of the Faraud sister: Delphine, Cendrine, and Roseline. These aren't for those craving clean, pure fruit-forward profiles and they always have a certainly feral, wild quality (they're certainly easy to spot in a blind tasting) and are old- school all the way. They make a single Gigondas which is always a rough blend of 78% Grenache, 14% Syrah and the rest Cinsault and Mourvèdre, not destemmed, and aged all in very old foudres. I love the wines