2009 Château de Saint Cosme Gigondas Cuvée Valbelle

I had the same issue with the 2009 Gigondas Valbelle, which had shown extremely well from barrel, but the hail damage seems to have given the wine a much more pinched, tannic and astringent side to it. There’s plenty of concentration, some very pretty black fruits, licorice and truffle, but the tannins are coarse and the wine seems to suffer a bit from the tannins. It has taken a while, but one of my favorite producers in the southern Rhone, Louis Barruol of Saint-Cosme, is getting very good publicity just about everywhere I look. It is certainly well-deserved, considering the broad range of wines he produces, from his inexpensive and over-delivering Cotes du Rhones and Vins de Pays, to his top-flight, world-class wines made in Gigondas. This is all a matter of hard work and understanding viticulture and great terroirs. As for the estate wines from Gigondas, 2009 was a more challenging vintage for Louis Barruol than many people probably understand, because he had some serious hail issues that cut into his Grenache crop. His best vintage to date is 2007, but 2010 is going to come close, and he has certainly excelled in a much more difficult vintage for him personally, 2009. The 2010s are probably Barruol’s greatest vintage since 2007, yet slightly more tannic and backward at a similar stage in their development than the 2007s were. All of the following wines are 100% Grenache, with the exception of the first two. Importer: Vintage ‘59, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 966-9218

Bright crimson. Seemed to have a TCA cork which must have wrought its damage very quickly since this was one of the last samples to be delivered apparently. Odd overlay of very heavy clove scent and furry then drying tannins. Note my cork worry. Perhaps there is a fabulous wine here to which I have not been exposed. (JR)