As our tour of the Rhône continued, we found ourselves in Gigondas visiting Domaine du Grand Bourjassot. This domaine is making some wonderful wines that to many of us were the highlight wines of the trip. The Cuvée Cécile is a Gigondas made up of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah. The 2009 & 2010 vintages of this wine, which we tasted in a small but pristine and efficient winery, are full of wonderfully ripe red fruit, spice and earthy flavors that are wrapped around the incredible aromas of blackberries, herbs and lavender that this wine possesses. It's a terrific wine that can be found at ABC for $22.99, which in today’s market is an unbelievable value for a wine of this quality. The name Cécile is in reference to owners Pierre & Marie-Claude Varenne’s daughter Cécile Perez. If the name Cécile Perez sounds familiar, it is because one of my earlier blogs mentions Cécile and her husband Jean-Yves Perez, the proprietors of Domaine de I’Obrieu in Visan. This is, as with many French wines, truly a family business.

  The Domaine is made up of vineyards in Gigondas, Côtes du Rhône Villages Sablet and in Vacqueyras. Fifteen of the acres are split evenly between Sablet and Gigondas with the last acre in Vaqueyras. With some of the Grenache and Syrah vines being more than one hundred years old, these are wines of phenomenal flavor and character. These are definitely wines to look for as we will be bringing in a few new bottlings from Domaine du Grand Bourjassot in the very near future.

Ken Amendola, Wine Supervisor North Florida

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