Gigondas classified wines

We called this wine ‘Terre des Ainés’ because the big parcel of 10 hectares was always handed down to the first of each new generation for the last 5 generations.

Vines situated in a corner of a large 10 hectare parcel called ‘La Beaumette’  gave birth to this wine.  In fact, in 2004, thanks to differing maturity these grapes were harvested and vinified separately from the rest of the parcel.  The soil, sub soil, exposition, slope,  vine varieties and the age of the vines are identical in the whole parcel.  Even the indigenous yeasts analysed in the following years were identical.

We made this ‘discovery’ during our winetasting and pre-blending of our Gigondas vats after the malolactic fermentation.  Compared with the other two vats from the same parcel, this new arrival surprised us in its fullness and harmony despite its youth. We thought that the blending of the three vats would give an even more complex wine, which was not the case. What was the difference?  We had two choices, to do a blending identical to other years and let this gift of nature disappear, or to share our new discovery, despite not understanding why,  with the Montirius amateurs by doing a separate bottling. We did not know if this phenomenon would be reproduced.   This is how this vintage was born;  it is a ‘confidence’ in the location.

It is a selection of our youngest  Gigondas vines. We gave it the name ‘La Tour’ because one of the parcels in the locality has this name.