2014 Gigondas Le Claux

One of the wines of the vintage from Gigondas, and I think the most complete of the three single vineyard releases from Saint Cosme, the 2014 Gigondas le Claux sports a medium ruby, semi-transparent color to go with a Pinot Noir-like bouquet of camphor, sweet cherries, dried flowers, forest floor and lots of minerality. Rich, medium to full-bodied, layered and with a terrific mid-palate and core of fruit, it won't be the longest-lived example of this cuvee, yet my money's on it drinking beautifully for at least another 8-10 years.

Vivid ruby-red. Highly perfumed red fruit liqueur, potpourri and Asian spice scents show impressive clarity and vivacity. Sappy, tangy and precise, offering lively raspberry and floral pastille flavors and a touch of spicecake. Closes on a smoky mineral note, displaying superb focus, silky tannins and emphatic, floral-driven persistence.

Tasted blind. Cask sample. Quite dark crimson. Dense and polished. Tastes as though there is some Syrah here but in fact it is mainly very old Grenache from a nineteenth-century vineyard. Savoury. (JR)