1981 Gigondas Les Pallières – a treat with roast chicken

 

Last night we enjoyed one of our declining bottles of Gigondas that we bought in the mid-1980s directly from the individual domaines. In this instance the lovely, rich and sweetly fruited 1981 Domaine Les Pallières – the wine was as magnificent as the label! We bought this from the Roux brothers, the previous owners of this estate, one of the leading estates in Gigondas. It was perfect with a simply roasted chicken.  

1981 Gigondas, Domaine de Longue-Toque

Last night we enjoyed this venerable bottle of Gigondas from Domaine de Longue-Toque bought probably in 1983 or 1984 when we used to spend several weeks in a great campsite in a pine forest in the small commune of Faucon a few kilometres north of Vaison La Romaine.  The property is now owned by Gabriel Meffre but then it belonged to Serge Chapalain.

The 1981 is delicately soft and silky, rather like an old Burgundy but with less acidity. Brings back memories a cycling round the area including ascents of Mont Ventoux.

Mont Ventoux from a vineyard in Rasteau 

The Gigondas 21-wine dinner@28:50

28:50 – table including Christine Saurel (Montirius), Jancis Robinson MW, 

Louis Barruol (next to Jancis), Matt Wall, Matthieu Perrin (Famille Perrin)

This was a tough event for any of us numerically challenged – 21 wines served@28:50 in Fetter Lane. The dinner was designed to show the ageability of Gigondas wines starting with examples from the 2006 vintage and ending with 1995.

From the 21 wines served my favourite wines from the marathon were (in order of vintage) the 2005 Confidentiel Montirius, 2004 Domaine Saint Gayan, 2000 Château de Saint Cosme, 2000 Domaine la Boussière and the 1999 Domaine les Pallières.

 Matt Wall and Louis Barruol (Château de Saint Cosme)

 Matt and Louis trying out syncronised tasting 

A reflective moment...

Henri-Claude Amadieu

 Christine Saurel (Montirius)

 Christian-Yves Carré de Lusançay (Domaine Saint-Gayan) 

showing early Movember promise!

Anthony Taylor (Maison Gabriel Meffre): 

portrait of an Irishman in the Dentelles

 Louis Barruol in full flow

 25 years and one day after the fall of the Berlin Wall 

–  the Gigondas producers build a glass one!

 Matthieu Perrin, Famille Perrin

Florence Cartier (Domaine Les Goubert)

Thierry Faravel (Domaine la Bouissière)

Sparkling gurus: Michael Edwards and Giles Fallowfield 

Gigondas charity (NSPCC) rugby match and auction

 Team photo: UK wine trade in white, Gigondas in navy blue

 Special shirt for the match@King's House sports ground, Chiswick

Yesterday I watched my first rugby match for many a year – probably the first one since I was a school, which is now a little while ago. How time passes! Held at the King's House sports ground beside the Thames at Chiswick, the match was between the British Wine Trade and producers and friends of Gigondas. Organised by Louis Barruol of Château de Saint-Cosme in Gigondas the match and the dinner at Stokes & Moncrieff (Twickenham) that followed were designed to raise money for the NSPCC (The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children).

Louis invited The Circle of Wine Writers to supply some players for the UK team but unfortunately we either don't have any active rugby playing members or any that were available to play. Having only played occasionally at school and with little enthusiasm, I was prepared to go and watch but not run about on the pitch for 60 minutes! That requires a different fitness than cycling for long distances. Sadly I turned out to be the only journalist who made the trip to a part of Chiswick that I had never been to before.

It was a rather ad-hoc UK team that faced the might of Gigondas – some members of the UK trade plus friends of Louis Barruol from the little village of Lee, near Ilfracombe, North Devon. Louis has a holiday home here and his influence has transformed the wines of the local pub – the Grampus Inn run by Bill Harvey. Out has gone boxed wines from Stowells of Chelsea to be replaced with Gigondas from Château Saint-Cosme and other wines     

Fortunately it was a lovely sunny late autumn afternoon in marked contrast to the vileness of the day before – torrential showers during the afternoon and evening. 

The match was played in good spirit, no bones were broken although I imagine there will be some stiff limbs this morning! After initial pressure from the British, the Gigondas team's superior strength and technique began to pay off and they won by 17-10.   

Shaking hands@the end of 60 minutes

Dinner and auction@Stokes & Moncrieff

Following the match a magnum dinner and auction was held at Stokes & Moncrieff in Twickenham. It was a relaxed and very enjoyable occasion bien arrosée with magnums of Gigondas. The highlight of the evening was the auction of magnums and larger format bottles of Gigondas to raise money for the NSPCC. Jasper conducted the bidding to great effect raising £1560. 

 

Louis and Jasper in action

 

Louis Barruol 

 Louis with a Perpignan rugby shirt – 

a gift from former French international Michel Koniek

I suspect that the evening went on for a considerble time but I had to leave relatively early to get home on a Sunday night from this western extremity of London!   

Two favourite magnums: 

 2005 Valbelle, Château de Saint Cosme

2005 Confidentiel, Montirus   

Gigondas: new book by John Livingstone-Learmonth and others

Gigondas: its wines, its lands, its people

New book on Gigondas (southern Rhône) by a group of writers led by John Livingstone-Learmonth assisted by Georges Truc, Jean-Baptiste Amadieu, Louis Barruol, Véronique Raisin and Ilka Kramer. Kelly McAuliffe, Ned Goodwin MW, Andrew Jefford, Kermit Lynch, Alain Passard, Josh Raynolds, Alain Senderens, Lincoln Siliakus and Christopher Tassan.

Available in both French (Gigondas – ses vins, sa terre, ses hommes) and English, Gigondas is published by Les Éditions du Bottin Gourmand and IG and AV Organisme de Défense et de Gestion Gigondas and Inter-Rhône. It has 501 pages with photo credits to: Ilka Kramer, Georges Truc, Romain Cabon, Agence Elsewhere, Cyrille Suss, Jean-Marie Triat, François Jourdan, Laurent Gernez and Benôit Dignac.

Gigondas will be on sale from 3rd January 2012 (39€) from various shops including branches of FNAC or you can order it on line from the Gigondas website for 33€ + postage and packing. 

King Roan: John Livingstone-Learmonth