2022 Domaine Saint-Damien "La Louisiane" Gigondas Vieilles Vignes

The 2022 single vineyard la Louisiane bottling from Domaine Saint-Damien is fifteen percent octane in this warm vintage. As I mentioned last year, these are very old vines, with the grenache planted in 1942, the cinsault in 1951 and the mourvèdre in 1977. The 2022 la Louisiane offers up a deep and refined bouquet of red and black raspberries, fruitcake, pepper, grilled meats, woodsmoke, a hint of green olive, stony soil tones and a lovely topnote of garrigue. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, ripe and complex, with superb depth of old vine fruit, excellent soil signature and grip, ripe, firm, buried tannins and excellent balance on the long, complex and very promising finish. These old vines seem to have really handled the climactic vagaries of the vintage superbly well! All this excellent bottle of Gigondas needs is time in the cellar to soften up its tannins. 2034-2065+.