Domaine Gerin 2018s, power for the long haul
2018 in the northern Rhone was a warm year but nowhere near as solar as 2017. It has given us rich expressions of Syrah with dark fruit, but plenty of floral character and mineral freshness. As a visionary young vigneron, Jean-Michel Gerin succeeded in two massive projects. First, he managed to unite two portions of land from previous generations but his work on restoring the terraces in the early eighties is proving to have been a fantastic investment. And remember at this time the Rhone valley was still largely ignored and was very poor.
Côte-Rôtie is perhaps the single most successful area in 2018 in the northern Rhone. It is a complex little area, packed with small, delineated vineyards. Over 70 lieux-dits in roughly 300 hectares and that is a doubling of the area under maintained vines since 1991 as more terraces have been restored and brought back into production. In 1971 it was only 70 hectares. It's like Burgundy with steep, slidey, expensive-to-maintain terraces. There are two main zones: north and south - the mythical Côtes Brune and Blonde. Gerin are mostly in the former, the area making the longest lived and slower maturing wines. Here, while there is granite, soils are mostly schist and gneiss, often with a high iron content. These wines are 100% Syrah except for the Champin le Seigneur, which contains around 10% Viognier. All this goes to make seriously delicious, deep, rich and savoury wines that really reward ageing.
The challenge of 2018 and the challenging terroir of Côte-Rôtie turn out to have been excellent bedfellows. The wines are juicy and vivid and as John Livingstone-Learmonth says - 'It's a vintage where the hierarchy of the soils has never been stronger. There are striking wines from the most noble terroirs, which have often prevailed in the battle with the weather.' And the wines below come from the very top vineyards. /CW
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