2011 St Joseph, Clos de Cuminaille, Domaine Pierre Gaillard

2011 St Joseph, Clos de Cuminaille, Domaine Pierre Gaillard

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2011 St Joseph, Clos de Cuminaille, Domaine Pierre Gaillard

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Description

Pierre Gaillard is one of the most respected vignerons in the Northern Rhône. With experience at Vidal-Fleury and Etienne Guigal, he rapidly built a reputation of his own when he first started producing is own wines in 1987. He is particularly skilful in using oak to coax luxuriant and extremely seductive flavours, but flavours that never lose sight of the individuality of their originating terroirs.

Pierre’s first wine was a St Joseph from this walled single vineyard (clos) on a sandy, granitic plot just to the south of Chavanay. With both vines and vigneron gaining maturity, the wine is impressively complex, wearing its 40 percent new oak with considerable aplomb and boasting plenty of attractive ripe black-cherry fruit, hedgerow charm and mineral depth.

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate
The fresh 2011 St.-Joseph Clos de Cuminaille possesses attractive strawberry and black cherry fruit intermixed with hints of forest floor and wet rock. With impressive minerality, this fresh, lively 2011 should drink nicely for 5-7 years. 

Two cuvees of St.-Joseph are produced, including Les Pierres (which comes from stony soils) and the Clos de Cuminaille (which is a true “Clos”).
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate #204, Dec 2012
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Jancis Robinson MW16/20
Toasty, ripe black pepper nose. Much richer and plumper than the regular St-Joseph. But a bit less vital. Oak suppresses the fruit a bit?
Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com – 6 Feb 2013
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Robert Parker
The fresh 2011 St.-Joseph Clos de Cuminaille possesses attractive strawberry and black cherry fruit intermixed with hints of forest floor and wet rock. With impressive minerality, this fresh, lively 2011 should drink nicely for 5-7 years. 

Two cuvees of St.-Joseph are produced, including Les Pierres (which comes from stony soils) and the Clos de Cuminaille (which is a true “Clos”).
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate #204, Dec 2012
Read more

About this WINE

Domaine Pierre Gaillard

Domaine Pierre Gaillard

Pierre Gaillard grew up amongst vines. At 12, he was found ploughing his family vineyard with a horse. Following his winemaking studies in Montpellier, he bought his first lands in St. Joseph in 1981, reviving the “Clos de Cuminaille” – an ancient wine growing estate dating back to Roman times.

In recent years, Pierre’s children have been getting more involved at the domaine; but his own passion and influence still remain at the core of the impressive property. As well as being one of the top growers in St Joseph, Pierre is also one of a handful of producers realising the potential of Seyssuel to the north of the region. In total, he has over 60 parcels spread over 35 hectares in the Northern Rhône, which makes for an extremely comprehensive overview of everything these appellations have to offer.

We tasted the 2021s alongside Pierre-Antoine, Pierre’s son. Some of the wines were still in tank or barrel, so he made us up a ball-park blend to taste. His various incantations of Syrah had the refined, elegant style and notes of fresh herbs common to this vintage. Some new oak is used on the wines but less than some years, to allow the fruit purity to dominate – a style that works especially well this year due to the refined profiles.

As always, the whites on offer are a vintage ahead, so 2022 this year. You’ll remember how hot the summer was and this was true in the Northern Rhône too. However, extreme heat made the vines shut down and prevented sugar development, saving the wines from high alcohols and retaining acidity. Adapted vine canopy management to shade the grapes and prevent sunburn was also key. While the wines have a warmer profile than the 2021s, they nonetheless showed freshness to counterbalance their depth.

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Syrah/Shiraz

Syrah/Shiraz

A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.

It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.

South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.

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