Okay. OKAY. Somebody pinch us. I am shocked that this offering for Château de Saint Cosme Le Claux (Family-owned Gigondas royalty since 1490) is a first for Wine Spies???!!! I’m still shaking my head in disbelief! Nearly 20 years and not once! A winery who graces The Top 100 Lists Frequently!! The Genius of Gigondas! What were we thinking 😱??? $95. Scores to match too!

97 points -Decanter. 96 Points -James Suckling 95 Points -Wine Spectator and 95 Points -Jeb Dunnuck. A 95-to-97 spread across four major critics and this is the same estate that lands on Jeb Dunnuck’s, Wine Spectator’s, and Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 lists year after year?!!! 🤯

Vinous ranks Saint Cosme “among the Rhône Valley’s elite producers”

Wine Spectator profiled the winemaker Louis Barruol under the headline, ”Genius of Gigondas”. This was also the same year, the winery hit #5 on their Top 100.

Barruol has often been quoted as saying, ”I want to make wines which express their terroir with purity and personality. I want balanced wines with a great ability to age.”

He is also one of the sitting presidents of the Gigondas appellation itself. Not just a producer, but someone helping steward the whole region’s standards.

This is Château de Saint Cosme’s Le Claux, the oldest vineyard on a Gigondas estate that’s been in the same family since 1490. It sits right down the hill from the château, literally across the street from Hominis Fides, the estate’s OTHER legendary single-vineyard bottling. The vines on Le Claux go back to 1870, planted right after phylloxera nearly wiped-out European wine for good. Some of them are still original.

Jeb Dunnuck on 2023 Gigondas: “pure, elegant, beautifully balanced,” compared favorably to 2020 and 2012, “fresher and more elegant than the 2022s” He continued to say this wine is “ripe, layered, and charming.”

Decanter called the 2023 “full-bodied, fully concentrated and fresh, with wonderful textural finesse.”

Pull the cork too early and this wine will make you work for it. Give it air, or give it years, and the reward gets serious. Right out of the pour, it’s a little closed, almost stubborn, tight dark fruit and a whisper of crushed stone underneath. Two hours into a decant, it starts to open into ripe plum skin, a dusting of baking spice, and something like warm fig preserves. Another hour in, dried violet and a savory, almost bay-leaf edge show up alongside a graphite thread running the length of the palate.

The tannins are big, but fine-grained, clearly built for a decade or two in your cellar. Out of pure curiosity on our part, we opened a bottle, poured a little out and let it open on the counter for three hours to see what one would really need to do to enjoy it now. Peeps on our team said, “okay, NOW we get it.” Read the reviews, the critics are in alignment on this one.

So while this highly collectible and cellar worthy wine needs some time in the bottle, you can enjoy it now, but it needs a few hours to fully unwind. You could also, open it the night before. Take a swig, put the cork back in and open it a few hours before dinner the next day. 🤩

A Genius behind the wheel. 95 to 97 points across the board. First time ever we offered it to ya! $95 gets you your magic wine!

97 Points - Decanter - “Plum and damson fruit with Christmas spicing, this is full-bodied, fully concentrated and fresh, with wonderful textural finesse. The oak work is still integrating but will do so in time. It’s powerful without being heavy and has great intensity, vibrancy and a long finish. Grown on yellow marls, whole-bunch fermented with natural yeasts in concrete, then aged in barrels of various ages. Drink 2030-2043.”

96 Points - James Suckling - “Welcome to the deep end of Gigondas. The dense nose of damson plums and baking spices barely prepares you for the enormous concentration of this very full-bodied and very muscular palate. Huge finish but with good freshness. The only thing this needs is more time in the bottle to calm down and slim down a bit. Extremely long finish. From organically grown grapes from vines planted in 1880. Best after 2027.”

95 Points - Wine Spectator - “Perfumy aromas of violet and lavender introduce this blockbuster red, packed with sappy plum, boysenberry and singed anise. Humming with mineral energy, this stays lively through the massive finish, which offers wafts of smoked meat and sandalwood smoke and is held together with ripe yet firm black tea tannins. Best from 2027 through 2040. 105 cases imported.”

95 Points - Jeb Dunnuck - “Based on 100% Grenache that was not destemmed and was raised in used oak, the 2023 Gigondas Le Claux comes from a site just down the hill from the château, just across the street from the Hominis Fides lieu-dit. Offering red and black fruits, savory herbs, loamy soils, and camphor, it’s ripe, layered, and charming, while at the same time bringing ample background tannic grip. It has medium to full-bodied richness with terrific concentration and depth. Give it a few years and drink over the following decade or more. Drink 2028-2038.”