"Already showing ample complexity, the 2021 Gigondas Reserve features scents of stewed black cherries, orange zest and something akin to the spices found in Campari. Full-bodied and ripe, it's hard to tell this is a 2021, as the texture is velvety, the finish long." RP

À partir de 2017, le « classique » devient une « Réserve du Domaine ». Outre le nom, la sélection change également. Il y aura relativement plus de fruits provenant des parcelles et, surtout, seuls les fruits des vieilles vignes seront encore utilisés, le vin provenant des plantations plus jeunes étant vendu sous une autre étiquette. L'amélioration de la qualité est évidente et, malgré la sécheresse et la floraison difficile du grenache, ce 2017 est l'un des meilleurs Gigondas que nous ayons déjà dégustés de ce domaine. Il s'est avéré être un vin magnifique, puissant, profondément fruité, crémeux et nuancé que l'on peut déguster relativement jeune grâce à son bel équilibre et à ses tanins raffinés. Julien Brechet nous surprend d'année en année avec des vins absolument époustouflants !

"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