Winemaker Notes
The wine offers aromas of red fruits, raspberries, and pomegranates, with rich and elegant tannins and a very long finish featuring minty and fruity notes, making it an excellent pairing for beef cheek or lamb mousse, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, oyster mushrooms with garlic, roast poultry with rosemary, or rabbit terrine.
Blend: 60% Grenache noir, 40% Syrah
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Based on Grenache and Syrah, the 2022 Gigondas Le Fauquet is ruby/plum-hued and offers ripe cherry and mulberry fruit as well as peppery herbs, leather, and spring flowers. It shows the pure, focused, elegant, yet nicely concentrated style of the vintage and is medium to full-bodied, wonderfully balanced, and has outstanding length.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Slightly reduced, the 2022 Gigondas le Fauquet exhales aromas of iris, peonies and rose after aeration. Medium to full-bodied, tense and juicy, it's enrobing and has a delicate mid-palate and well-integrated tannins. This blend of unknown proportions of Grenache Noir and Syrah was matured in concrete tanks.
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Vinous
Vinified from certified organic Grenache and Syrah grapes, the 2022 Gigondas Le Fauquet is entirely concrete-aged, opening with wafts of blood orange, raspberry, strawberry, licorice and a dash of white pepper. Made in an inviting and fruit-driven style that will provide lots of pleasure from a young age, this 2022’s smooth tannins caress the palate all the way through to the juicy finish.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
The Southern Rhône region of Gigondas extends northwest from the notably jagged wall of mountains called the Dentelles di Montmirail, whose highest point climbs to about 2,600 feet. The region and its wines have much in common with the neighboring Chateauneuf-du-Pape except that the vineyards of Gigondas exist at higher elevation and its soils, comprised mainly of crumbled limestone from the Dentelles, often produce a more dense and robust Grenache-based red wine.
The region has a history of fine winemaking, extending back to Roman times. But by the 20th century, Gigondas was merely lumped into the less distinct zone of Côtes du Rhône Villages. However, it was first among these satellite villages to earn its own appellation, which occurred in 1971.
Gigondas reds must be between 50 to 100% Grenache with Syrah and Mourvèdre comprising the bulk of the remainder of the blend. They tend express rustic flavors and aromas of wild blackberry, raspberry, fig, plum, as well as juniper, dried herbs, anise, smoke and river rock. The best are bold but balanced, and finish with impressively sexy and velvety tannins.
The Gigondas appellation also produces rosé but no white wines.