"The 2017 Gigondas La Colline comes from a single parcel and is basically all Grenache that was 80% destemmed and brought up in demi-muids. It's an incredible sexy, opulent wine overflowing with notes of kirsch liqueur, wild strawberries, raspberries, incense and spring flowers. With full-bodied richness, present yet ultra-fine tannins, a voluptuous texture and just an all-around layered seamless, hedonistic yet flawlessly balanced style, it's going to benefit from short-term cellaring and keep for 10-15 years. It's a magical wine from this terrific winemaker. " Jeb Dunnuck

"The full-bodied 2017 Gigondas La Colline is evolving beautifully, retaining those exotic licorice and blood orange notes observed last year and fleshing them out with blackberry and purple raspberry fruit. All Grenache, it's perfumed and floral, boasts a lush, creamy-velvety mouthfeel and finishes with tremendous length. Tasted twice, with consistent notes." RP

“La Colline” komt van een perceel in de ‘Jasio’ wijngaard. Deze licht zuidelijk georiënteerde wijngaard met een bodem van sterk kalkhoudende mergel bevat de hoogste percelen van het domein, die de meest krachtige, gestructureerde wijn geven. Voor deze cuvée worden alleen de 5 eerste rijen oude Grenache zonnigste deel van deze wijngaard apart gevinifieerd. Al het andere fruit gaat naar de Gigondas “classique”. Hier een nog lagere opbrengst, amper 16hl/ha, 4000 flessen en 240 magnums gebotteld.

"Proprietor Julien Brechet is redefining Gigondas through his exploration of selections parcellaires, which are essentially monovarietal. Le Lieu Dit and La Colline are Grenache, Le Plateau is Mourvèdre and Les Routes is Syrah. The blended cuvée remains an assemblage of four varieties and represents an outstanding value. Brechet is pleased with the quality he's been able to achieve the past few vintages but says he's always striving to do better. On this visit, he poured a couple of older vintages so we could look at his progress, saying that he felt he'd made mistakes at times in the past. Of the La Colline, Brechet says, "Before it was impressive, now it's expressive." One of the keys to the quality he was able to achieve in 2018, he says, was the use of destemming, which he now varies considerably from year to year (in 2017, he used as much as 30% whole clusters). Brechet considers 2018 to be a year that favored Grenache, comparing it to 2006 and 2012. That said, I remain impressed by his Les Routes (Syrah), which has become one of the Southern Rhône's greatest examples of that variety—worth noting is that the genetic material is a sélection massale from Fonsalette, which is said to originate from cuttings provided by the Chave family. Equally impressive is the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Brechet bottles from a tiny patch of 100-year-old vines farmed for him by his brother Laurent (Château de Vaudieu). "The signature of the estate is the finesse," Brechet says." RP