2009 Cotes du Roussillon Vieilles Vignes

A blend of Carignan, Grenache, with a small amount of Syrah, and bottled in February, the Gauby 2009 Cotes du Roussillon Villages Vieilles Vignes was matured in a mixture of tank, Stockinger foudres, and older demi-muids. Strongly redolent of licorice, peat, black tea, and ripe dark cherry, this projects a corresponding lusciously-ripe, smoke-tinged personality on the palate. Hints of scrubby juniper, marjoram, and game emerge as this opens, and suggestions of crushed stone add intrigue to a tenacious finish whose sense of lift is striking in the context of the 2009 vintage, and quite possibly - as Gaubys and other growers in similar situations would have us believe - attributable to soil high in active lime. The qualitative gap between the Les Calcinaire cuvee with its younger vines and the old vine cuvee under consideration is especially wide in this stressful vintage. I would expect this to be worth following for a decade. Gerard and Lionel Gauby - for much more about whose vineyards, labors, and stylistic evolution see my account in issue 183 - have elected after much consideration to bottle some single-vineyard wines not only for the pleasure of it but as a means of learning more by following their solo performances about the potential of some clearly outstanding parcels and sites that they have acquired over the past 6-8 years but which do not - at least for now - have an established place in either the red Vieilles Vignes or Muntada cuvees, and have instead until now been blended into the La Calcinaire rouge (or, in the case of Grenache Gris, the white Vieilles Vignes). The upshot for yours truly as critic is even more excitement when tasting a Gauby collection than before, though it will surely be difficult to secure bottles from any of the aforementioned mini-cuvees in order to follow them in one's own cellar. (Incidentally, Lionel Gauby is also experimenting with a couple of Jura-inspired barrels of white largely left to their own evolutionary devices. Nobody can accuse the Gaubys of resting on their laurels - though I suppose some fans might prefer if they did!) The 2008 collection here impressively reflects the tiny berries that Gerard Gauby says characterized that vintage. "The Carignan, especially," adds Lionel Gauby, "was magnificent." And while the 2009 reds here are certainly impressive, 2010 will be a class above them, the wines already rife with intrigue. (The aforementioned single-site lots - whose number increased in 2010 - are of course by definition unblended, so there is no question that what I tasted from cask was definitive; but I felt it was too early to publish notes on these, especially when the familiar classic cuvees were as yet only represented by unblended lots.) Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800