Walls: The magic of mature Gigondas

Mature Gigondas

In 2019, I visited the cellars of Domaine du Cayron in Gigondas. With great generosity, sisters Delphine, Cendrine and Roseline Faraud opened a bottle of their 1971 vintage. A very good year it might have been, but I’ll be honest with you, at 48 years of age I didn’t hold out much hope. I was wrong.

The aromas had moved beyond fruit into polished wood, cold ashes, cigar smoke and spice. There was still a dab of fruit sweetness on the palate, however. On the finish, that salinity – the tightrope that Gigondas walks as it ages – shone through.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for 18 mature Gigondas wines spanning 1990 to 2005

Gigondas gains AOC status

The 1971 vintage was particularly special here. It was the year that the appellation of Gigondas was promoted from village-level, AOC Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages Gigondas, to the cru-level of AOC Gigondas. To celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, the appellation is planning a smorgasbord of celebrations (click here for details). What better moment than this to revisit some mature vintages to see how they’re progressing and to illustrate how Gigondas develops over time.

As a rule of thumb, most Southern Rhône wines are showing their best between four to eight years after the vintage. Grenache-based wines rarely fall into quite as deep a sleep as Syrah from the Northern Rhône. But between youth and early maturity they tend not display the vibrancy of a young wine nor the complexity of a mature one.

So for now enjoy the 2019s, 2018s and 2017s for their juicy, fresh fruits. But try to leave your 2016s, 2015s and the more structured 2014s for a few years yet.

The 2013s, 2012s and 2011s I’ve enjoyed recently are developing complexity alongside their succulent fruitiness and are in a good place. Most 2010s, however, still aren’t ready yet – it was an excellent but powerful year that’s taking a long time to open up.

The verdict on the 1990-2005 vintages

The bracket of wines from 2009 to 2005 inclusive are now at a later stage of maturity and I tasted three 2005s for this tasting.

2005

‘2005 will remain in my mind as a magical year,’ says Louis Barruol of Château de Saint Cosme. It was a very dry year resulting in a small, concentrated crop and his Valbelle is only just ready to drink. In comparison the Domaine Raspail-Ay is comfortably mature and drinking beautifully.

For many wine lovers this will be the perfect stage at which to drink great mature Gigondas. They show richness, concentration and sap combined with the complexity of age.

2001

My high hopes for a flight of three 2001s weren’t quite met. It was an excellent vintage in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but this is a different terroir. It was another hot, very dry year that was complicated for many in Gigondas. This resulted in wines that were tough to start with. The freshness of the vintage is impressive, but it’s not the most elegant.

Domaine Brusset’s Les Hauts de Montmirail was excellent, however. The 2001 is a vintage Laurent Brusset remembers for its ‘natural balance’, he says; something he captured with great skill.

The twenty-year mark represents a tipping point for mature Gigondas wines. It is typically around this age that any remaining fresh fruit aromas will have passed into gamey, spicy, woody and balsamic notes.

Some drinkers might find this more challenging. For me, however, the truth is found on the tongue. If the wine is still fresh, supple and harmonious on the palate, there’s still enjoyment and pleasure to be had – though that pleasure can move from hedonistic into a more intellectual realm.

2000

The warm 2000 vintage resulted in a very large crop, and is considered a softer, more tender year than 2001. That being said, the 2000 Grapillon d’Or was a revelation. It is a brilliant, complex, compelling wine immediately after opening, though it faded soon after that.

Bastide St Vincent’s Costevieille was past its best, but not without interest, having descended into an infernal meaty cauldron of flavour.

1999

Both 1999s – Domaine du Pesquier, and Pierre Amadieu’s Domaine Grande Romane – had the vibrancy and straightness of this vintage and were alive and tense. Pierre Amadieu explains that it was an underrated year, characterised by its ‘extremely clean fruit, contrasting with the big and powerful 1998’.

It was always in the shadow of the hotter 1998, but thanks to their acidity some 1999s not only have better definition and freshness, but they have aged more gracefully too.

1998

The 1998s are largely at the same stage as the 2001s, 2000s and 1999s. Of the three 1998s I tasted, they were all showing strong gamey notes. Some had a bretty character which was a more prevalent problem in the 90s than it is today. They felt a little stodgier and more alcoholic than the 1999s, and need drinking up now.

The 1998 Domaine Saint Gayan was particularly enjoyable, however; a wine to sink into like an old leather armchair.

1995

From here, I jumped to 1995, which is considered a truly great vintage in Gigondas. It is one that has taken a long time to come round. Domaine Les Goubert’s Cuvée Florence and the ever-dependable Domaine Santa Duc’s Les Hautes Garrigues were both show-stoppers.

The fresh fruits of both had gone, making way for date and prune, along with rolling tobacco, leaf tea and dried herbs. It’s the harmony and textural vibrancy that gives these wines such longevity – a result of the clay-limestone terroir.

1990

There was only one wine from 1990, a fabulous year throughout the Southern Rhône: Domaine du Cayron. This time I knew what to expect, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a wine of stunning complexity, with another 10 years ahead of it.

‘One of my favourite vintages,’ says Delphine Faraud of Domaine du Cayron, who counts 1985, 1978 and 1971 as exceptional older years. ‘The wines of Gigondas’, she says, “have, and always will have, a great ageing potential’.

1990 to 2005: 18 mature Gigondas wines tasted

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