2011 Gigondas Le Claux

The ever-loquacious, opinionated and reliably frank Louis Barruol told me that 2010 has only one weakness as a vintage, and that's the fact that "the wines are too structured for a market that more and more wants immediate gratification." He went on: "Too many people won't understand just how great the wines are because they've started opening them and they're not finding upfront pleasure, so they think the wines are overrated." In Barruol's view, 2011 is bound to become "a classic example of a vintage that's overlooked because of what's around it, which means 2009, 2010 and 2012, so it's not going to be easy for people to accept that these wines can be excellent, and powerful as well." It's worth noting that Barruol's "basic" Gigondas checks in at 14.5% alcohol in 2011, which doesn't fit in with many folks' stereotype of the vintage as being weak-kneed. The natural concentration that was brought on by the low yields of the vintage "has made wines that will fool people down the road. They'll never guess that they're from a vintage that people wrote off," Barruol concludes. (Craft+Estate/The Vintner Group, www.craftandestate.com; Cavatappi Distribuzione, www.cavatappi.com; Epic Wines, www.epic-wines.com)

Louis Barruol calls himself "a huge fan of 2010 but if you try the wines now, for the first time, you might wonder what is so great because they are completely shutting down." He compared his '10s to his '05s but said that he thinks the latter vintage will come around sooner, even taking the age difference into account. "The 2005s need to be forgotten for a very long time," he added. He also noted that his 2007s "have never really closed up, which is good because so many people are drinking them." Speaking about the 2011s, he told me that while he thought that they'll always have a lean side, "they have become sweeter as they've matured, which will give them good immediate appeal." He cautions against holding on to them for too long "because that lean character is sure to come back, the question is just when."