Gigondas, Southern Rhône, France
Standing in Véronique Peysson’s sunny courtyard, she showed me the steep mountain peak on which her Gigondas vinyards are perched. They seemed ridiculously high and, to the naked eye, to have no access road, but those were indeed her vines. The famous battering Mistral wind does many things and when your vineyards are, intermingled with the mountain, it adds flavour into the wine. It literally blows the flavours from the mountains and valleys flora into the grapes – delicious notes of forest pine trees, wild herbs and olive groves all permeate the grapes; honestly, the proof is in the tasting.
La Mistral also acts as a purifier by blowing away dust and pollution, increasing sunshine hours by seeing off rain clouds and clearing rot by drying the grapes.
Cuvee Véronique’s Gigondas cépage is Grenache, Syrah, Mouvèdre, Cinsault, from fifty-year-old vines, grown in five very different terroirs, aged for eight months in foudres. A captivating wine, herby and aromatic, rich spicy well balanced and powerful, yet long and very elegant at the same time.
