2019 Chateau de Saint Cosme, Gigondas, Rhone Valley, France.
As readers of this website will most certainly know, Chateau de Saint Cosme Gigondas is one of my personal favorites and a wine I drink for my own pleasure and try to review every vintage, it always seems to get better and better, even with such expectations this wine, especially this stunning 2019, continues to thrill me and impress for the depth and quality for the price, there may not be a better wine value anywhere! I am a huge admirer of Louis Barroul’s wines, from his outstanding 100% Syrah Cotes du Rhone to his signature Grenache led Gigondas, as well as his set of beauties from the Northern Rhone sites, including his Cote-Rotie, Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage and the Condrieu. This deeply saturated 2019 Gigondas opens with a mix of dark berry fruit, spice, heady aromas and savory elements with boysenberry, black plum, pomegranate and wild strawberry fruits flowing across the full bodied palate along with lavender, pepper, anise and subtle earthy tones, gaining impact and presence in the glass with every sip, while providing immediate pleasure. This is another sensational effort from Saint Cosme with fine grained tannins, raw transparency and a lingering creme de cassis finish, well worth aging, for those that have patience there will be tremendous rewards, even though the youthful fruit intensity makes for a hedonistic experience that is hard to resist even in such a youthful wine. Best to have this wine with simple, but hearty cuisine and I would, as always, suggest a 30 minute to an hour decanting here, which will bring additional joy and a more chocolatey mouth feel.
The Chateau de Saint Cosme estate in the Southern Rhone is one of the best and most consistent wineries in France, their signature Gigondas continues to be as good as anything made in the old world, with these latest three or vintages being nearly perfect in every way imaginable. Chateau de Saint Cosme was one of the earliest wineries in the region with caves that go back to before Roman times. Louis Barruol is one of the greatest Rhone vignerons of his generation and makes some of the best value selections in the region with estate holdings primarily in Gigondas, he also has a thrilling set of negociant wines from growers in both the Southern side as well as in top areas of the Northern Rhone. As I have noted in prior reviews, Barruol, who father was a pioneer and a traditionalist loved to co-ferment his grapes and paid great attention to detail and focused his vines to achieve individual varietal ripeness. Louis continues that today with his current Gigondas collection, he explains that this is why at Saint Cosme, the early-ripening cultivars (grapes) are planted in the late-ripening sites and the late-ripening varieties in the early-ripening sites, adding that, in this way, they all ripen at the same time and can therefore be co-fermented. This 2019 was a blend of 70% Grenache, 15% Mourvèdre, 14% Syrah and about 1% Cinsault, as mentioned, co-fermented in concrete from all organic vines. The Gigondas was then aged in a combination of vessels with nearly 20% in new oak, 50% in used oak and with close to 30% of this Rhone in cement vats, to promote purity and terroir, which this vintage does exceptionally well. This is a modern classic, very similar to the wildly good 2016, that should not be missed!
($40 Est.) 95+ Points, grapelive