The 2019 vintage is characterised by particularly hot and dry weather with a rainfall deficit throughout the growing season and several heat waves. Fortunately, the abundant rainfall of the previous autumn (2018) had left sufficient reserves in the soils, allowing the grapes to develop well. Overall, the vineyard resisted well to the summer heat: the acids of the grapes were preserved and the sanitary state remained excellent. We were also lucky enough to have nights that remained cool, which is particularly favourable to the good maturation of the grapes. We were thus able to pick up very ripe and concentrated grapes.
The first tastings already suggested wines with good balance, expressive Grenache and Syrah with a nice mineral and straight profile.
Today, two years after the harvest, what is most striking about the wines of the 2019 vintage is their incredible freshness. Despite the high temperatures we experienced during the summer season, the acids in the grapes were well preserved and we find this acidity in the wines that gives the tasting a pleasant sensation of freshness.
We have no hesitation in thanking the clays in our soils which retained the rainfall of the previous autumn, thus allowing the vines not to suffer from the drought. Other factors also helped our vineyard, such as the Mistral wind, which ventilated well throughout the season, or the cool nights on our high hillsides and their north/north-west exposure, which kept the coolness in for longer in the morning.
When they were ripe, the berries were very small: the proportion between the pulp and the skins of the grapes was low. This meant little juice and a potentially high concentration of tannins. We therefore had to adapt the vinifications, taking particular care not to extract too much tannin. And today the 2019 vintage offers us concentrated, yet elegant wines that are at once fleshy, powerful and lively. They have a beautiful tannic structure, silky and without any aggressiveness. The 2019s are very aromatic Gigondas, with notes of spice, pepper and very fresh black berries, not at all compote-like.
This 2019 vintage is full of qualities, with a very nice balance and will benefit from waiting a few years thanks to its honourable ageing potential.
