The day started with a warm greeting as described above at Moulin de la Gardette's very cute tasting room on the town square. About 200 people live in the village of Gigondas (jee gon dahs) proper, with an additional 500 or so in the outlying area. So as you can imagine, the "town square" is a tiny but lively place. If you're visiting Gigondas, the square and the Gardette tasting room are terrifically easy to find. This was fortuitous for JC and me, as we've discovered that navigating in France is definitely not facile (see upcoming entry "Blonde & Blonder").

JB made us feel immediately at home, whizzing us up the nearby hill for a breathtaking view of his family's vineyards, a local ruin and, beyond, the entire Rhone Valley.

At the top of this little mountain is a circular indicator called the Belvedere Table d'Orientation instructing visitors on what can be found in the nearby countryside. Here's a pic of JC locating the Palace of the Popes in nearby Avignon, where we're staying. The giant mountain in the background is Mont Ventoux, the famed peak of this region and, apparently, a very windy place.

The first pic in this entry captures the "Mistral," the famed wind that whips through the area and temporarily took JC back to the big hair days of the 80s. It's also apparently blown some people off of Mont Ventoux to their deaths, eek!

Some more gorgeous pics of the Rhone!

After our sojourn on the windy peak we ventured into the vineyards, where we observed three different colors of soil - white, gray and orange - indicating several unique terroirs on the 9 hectare estate (about 22 acres).

The vines are a mix of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and Cinsault. The most interesting was the Cinsault, a blending grape with bigger berries than the others.

They were big, indeed! They've got, conversely, weaker stems than the Grenache, leading JB to make an amusing and, I must add, very French observation that the stems are "rather feminine" while the grapes "masculine." I had to chuckle to myself at that remark.

Here's another pic of some old vine Grenache (the property has vines up to around 100 years old, planted by JB's grandfather) and a middle aged vine with a gorgeous bunch on it undergoing veraison, the conversion of the grapes from green to purplish colors.

Cicadas, the bizarre large insects that make noise by vibrating while in trees and shrubs, can be heard all around the vineyard. JB explained that they make the noise to cool themselves, and that this racket can be heard as early as 6AM sometimes. When that's the case, it's going to be a scorcher, he says. Good thing they didn't get going 'til 9 today - as it was still incredibly warm and I can't imagine what it must be like when scorching.

Random aside: while doing some follow up research on cicadas I was intrigued by the site My-bugs.com, which sells framed cicadas under the slogan, "No living room or study would be complete without one." Hmm, not so sure I agree, but whatevs - to each his own!

Cuvee de Mon Fils
Then, back in the car for a quick jaunt over to the Gardette's new winery, built just two years ago by a local architect we ran into later near the town square. The facility is small but efficient and, as you can see from the pic, quite striking against the bright blue sky. Inside we were shown the concrete fermentation vats, where only natural yeasts are used to conduct fermentation and where JB's son, Georges, fell in one time.

This is actually incredibly dangerous since fermenting grapes give off CO2 that can lead to unconsciousness and, in rare instances, death. Fortunately, Georges was salvaged and I was able to safely joke, "did you call the wine 'Cuvee de Mon Fils'?

We tasted several wines in the winery, including the recently bottled 2004 vintage of the winery's two main wines, the Cuvee Tradition (retails in the US for around $17) and the Ventabrun (about $27). Both were very good, and I found the Ventrabrum (which sees time in old oak barriques and undergoes a light filtration) particularly pleasing. 2004 was an outstanding vintage in this area, and the wine is redolent with flavors of plum and currant as well as an exciting collection of things found in the surrounding area: lavender, thyme, wildflower and sweet grass. There are also notes of cocoa, orange peel, cinnamon, flowers and licorice. Highly recommended.

We also enjoyed tasting a 1998 vintage wine JB created in honor of the birth of his daughter, Zoe. Zoe has personalized her wine with these very cute chalk drawings and signature. I told JB over lunch I think Zoe, who's learning to play the harp and enjoys philosophy, will certainly be his next winemaker. He looked reflective after I said this and simply said, "I hadn't thought of that." It'll be interesting to see what happens.

After tasting there was a smooth transition to lunch in the village courtyard, just a brief jaunt away in JB's car. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal of summer salad, tartine and a charcuterie/cheese plate along with some Moulin de la Gardette wine. The highlight of the day was JB's opening, at lunch, a really lovely bottle of his 1995 Gigondas, which was bottled unfined and unfiltered. It had a beautiful nose of nuts, figs, coffee, some gun flint and dates and had structure to go on aging for 10 or more years. Definitely a class act.

"It's a very nice place to be a grape."
I can't think of a more pleasant day than today. Jean Baptiste, who worked at famed estate Diamond Creek in the Napa Valley for some time in the 90s and is pictured here with his eldest son, put it perfectly when he described the land surrounding the village of Gigondas and his vines.

The pine trees, the rosemary and all the other things in the area contribute character to the vines and, in turn, the region's wines. "It's a very nice place to be a grape," he said on the drive back from the little mountain. I couldn't agree more.


www.moulindelagardette.com