Domaine Santa Duc

Vintage: 2001
Producer: Domaine Santa Duc
Appellation: Gigondas

On My Palate:

Raisin-ated , stewed black fruit. Sweet, black fruit syrup. A monster.

Dries up quickly on the backside. Very tannic for a Grenache-based wine.

Masculine, muscular, and dark overall.

“Like licking an armoire,” adds my tasting partner.

The Dregs:

Gigondas is the quintessential wine commune. Vineyards hug the slopes at the base of the lace-like, limestone cliffs—the Dentelles de Montmirail—that jut into the air to outline the Vaucluse department’s natural skyline.

Gigondas and its winemaking neighbors—Vacqueyras, Cairanne, Sablet, Rasteau, Beaumes de Venise—sprinkle the hills that rise out of the Rhône river basin, above the plateau of the area’s famed, attention-grabbing superstar, Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

These are Southern France’s most promising, most established, and yet quietest appellations. They sit on the edge of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape black hole, whose unavoidable pull attracts international consumers, critics, and accolades who, for the most part, thankfully ignore the neighboring Grenache-based wines (too far from the interstate?).

Up front, this wine entices with a hint of the provocative black fruit that defines the most noble Grenache from the South of France, whose best expression relies on the complexities of its fruit (think Mediterranean sunshine, olive trees, lavender, and sunflowers) and not its time in barrel. Yet Domaine Santa Duc uses oak to muscle over this otherwise feminine, graceful wine—forcing it to be a wine that it never was (a father forcing his effeminate son to play football instead of dancing ballet) while masking its honest and head-turning qualities.

Where:

At home with veal escalope and peas.