Gigondas 2013

AOP Gigondas Red

Awards

91 pts Wine Advocate
92 pts Vinous
14,5/20 Bettane & Desseauve
OR Concours Général Agricole de Paris

Tasting

Intense and black-red colour. Powerful and aromatic nose of ripe, dark fruit (cherry, blackcurrant). Imposing mouthfeel, structured and generous with aromas of spices, dark chocolate, licorice and herbs. Long and impressive finish. (August 2015).

Food & wine pairings

Lamb shank
Wild boar stew
T-bone steak

Detailed information

Vintage

A cool and rainy Spring delayed and stretched out the flowering period. A hot summerfollowed by regular stormy episodes in September allowed to catch up for lost time butresulted in one of the latest harvests on record. The difficult Spring conditions resulted in widespread «shatter», when flowers abort before pollination, which affected almostexclusively the Grenache variety. This resulted in low crop yields and required carefulattention to ensure harvesting at the optimum time. Harvesting started only on the 10th ofOctober. Yields : Grenache 10hl/ha (0.35 tons/acre) – Syrah 30hl/ha (1.06 tons/acre).

Grape varieties

50% Grenache, 50% Syrah

Terroir

A blend of two terroirs:

Syrah from “La Jasse”, on limestone scree and marl from the Cretaceous period at 400m. alt (1300ft) in the Dentelles.
Grenache & Syrah from the “Montmirail” zone in sandy marl of the Oligocene period at 150m alt (500ft)

Winemaking

Manual harvesting. Crushed and destemmed. A 24-day maceration period with punch-downs and pump-overs up to 3 times a day and temperatures maintained around 28° to 30°C (82° to 86°F). Runoff and separation of the free-flow and press wines. Malolatic fermentation. Reintroduction of a portion of the press wine during the blending process. 18 months elevage : the Grenache in vat and the Syrah in barrel (new, one-year and two-year barrels).

Bottled at the Domaine on May 19th, 2015. Prodution : 8,800 bottles

ABV : 15.5% vol.