2019 Gigondas

Anybody paying the slightest attention to Gigondas over the last three decades knows Château de Saint Cosme and Louis Barruol, who took control here in 1992. Barruol represents the 14th generation of his family to oversee the family’s winery and 15 hectares of vineyard, almost all of them planted to Grenache. Those vines are extremely old, with many now 120 years of age, planted in the heart of the appellation. The wines are still made in the original cellar of the estate, which was constructed in the Gallo Roman era, over 2,000 years ago. So, history looms large here, quite literally as the 11th-century Chapelle Saint-Cosme et Saint-Damien sits directly above the winery and château. When it comes to wines, history is respected, with no rusticity in the way. In fact, these are consistently among the most skillfully and meticulously crafted wines in the Rhône valley. The standard of quality maintained by Barruol is as high as for any winery I know, anywhere. In recent years the domaine has issued what, for me, are the best wines ever, especially the 2020s. While the limited production, single-site bottlings are not easy to find and unquestionably expensive, the flagship Gigondas bottling is an excellent value and delivers more bang than plenty of Southern Rhône wines that sell for twice as much, or even more. And there’s a good amount of it, some 50,000 bottles per vintage. Starting with the 2023 vintage, there will be an appellation Gigondas Blanc, a goal that Louis Barruol has been doggedly pursuing over two decades, often seemingly single-handedly.