Domaine Saint Gayan Rasteau Cuvée Ilex 2018

Roger Meffre commenced the bottling of his Gigondas wines in 1956 and later, his son Jean-Pierre and daughter-in-law, Martine commenced bottling of their Rasteau, Sablet and Côtes du Rhône wines. In 1987 they acquired a very small parcel of vines in the north-eastern section of Châteauneuf-du-Pape via a very a beneficial swap of table wine land near the Ouveze river that the Châteauneuf-du-Pape owner wanted to buy for his son to develop as a campsite! St Gayan cultivates a total of 34ha (84 acres) of vineyards with 16ha in Gigondas, 5ha in Rasteau, 1ha in Sablet, 0.75ha in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 10ha in Côtes du Rhône and 1 ha under the IGP designation. The Gigondas parcels are spread across different sites but mostly on the northern sector of the appellation, with parcels on the raised plateau of marne, limestone and sand, and parcels on the more limestone-rich slopes of the Dentelles de Montmirail hills. The oldest grenache vines are over 100 years old and reserved for the cuvées “Fontmaria” and “In Nomine Patris”. Their main Gigondas cuvée “Origine” is one of my benchmark Gigondas wines – fine tannins, dried red fruits, wonderful complexity and a long, lingering finish held together by a delicate minerality.