2010 Gigondas Le Poste

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."

Louis Barruol describes 2010 as "at the same level as the best vintages ever here, with a perfect harmony of fruit and tannins." He is obsessed with tannins because he vinifies all of his red wines with whole clusters, "which means that you have to pay very close attention to their elevage so that wood tannins don't intrude and amplify the structure." He noted that working with healthy lees is also critical for whole-cluster work "because they help to round out the wine and harmonize the tannins with the fruit. Otherwise you have too big a frame and too small a picture." Speaking of tannins, Barruol noted that 2009 is a much more firmly tannic vintage than 2010. "The '09s will take a while to integrate but luckily there is a lot of fruit in the wines to allow them to take their time aging." (The Country Vintner, Ashland, VA; Epic Wines, Aptos, CA; Cavatappi Distribuzione, Seattle, WA; Stacole, Boca Raton, FL)