Saint Damien 2021 Cotes du Rhone "Plan de Dieu" 750ml

This wine is a blend of 80% Grenache, 15% Carignan and 5% Mourvedre. The Grenache vines were planted in 1948. Fermented for roughly 30 days in concrete vats, this is wine is bottled without any fining or filtration. This wine has a deep purple colour in the glass and exhibits dark cherry and blackberry notes on the nose. Hidden amongst this fruit bouquet are the classic Southern Rhone notes of pepper, garrigue and other spices. A medium to full bodied wine, this will easily last a decade (probably more) in the cellar. Thanks to the age of the Grenache vines, this wine tastes like a baby Gigondas to me and that makes it a tremendous value.

-- Jon Ellison, Marquis Wine Cellars (Tasted at Wine Paris in 2023)

Domaine Saint-Damien has been producing some of the region’s most elegant wines for years, but for some reason they rarely get the attention they deserve. Pricing here is also admirably fair, which makes this an address to be reckoned with for savvy Rhône wine lovers. The Saurel family, which has been farming here since 1821, now owns just over 12 hectares of vines in Gigondas, most of them quite old and cropped low, and the wines are aged in large, traditional concrete vats and old foudres and usually bottled on the young side “to preserve freshness,” as Romain Saurel said. Saurel’s father, Joël, is largely responsible for the domaine’s current (insider) fame and was also the one who brought its vineyards up to Agriculture Biologique certification in 2012. These wines are now consistently delivering some of the southern Rhône’s greatest values in high-end wine.

-- Vinous