"Saturated violet color. Intensely spice-tinged, kirck, blackcurrant, fruitcake, vanilla and floral aroma's pick up licorice, incense and smoky bacon nuances, with air. Juicy, chewy and energetic in style, it offers palate-staining black and blue fruit liqueur, candied violet, star anise and mocha flavors that deepen as the wine stretches out. The floral, cherry and mineral notes repeat emphatically on a wonderfully long juicy finish that features youthful but well-knit tannins and a hint of bitter chocolate. With the 2023 vintage, these vines will ba a full century old." Vinous

Met de oogst van 2016 brengt Julien een nieuwe “parcellaire” op de markt. Deze is afkomstig van een iets noordelijker gelegen wijngaard, iets lager dan “La Colline”. Dit perceel is beplant met meer dan 60 jaar oude Mourvèdre. Voor de eerste keer heeft Julien dit perceel apart gevinifieerd met een late oogst en in “vendange entière” met rijping op demi-muids. We proefden hem onlangs uit het vat en hoewel hij nog erg jong is, kregen we al een sterk vermoeden dat ook deze cuvée furore gaat maken. Ondanks de 100% Mourvèdre zijn hier nauwelijks dierlijke tonen te bespeuren met een frisse toets, deels door de ligging van het perceel, maar zeker ook dankzij de vendange entière. Een zeer krachtige, volle wijn, min of meer in de stijl van de allerbeste Bandol. Bijzonder geslaagde, eigenzinnige wijn vol karakter, niet te missen.

"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