2005 Gigondas Les Hautes Garriges Cuvee Prestige

I continue to love the 2005 Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues, and it's absolutely one of the wines of the vintage. Still youthfully ruby/purple colored, with beautiful notes of black raspberries, crushed rock, ground herbs and spice, it's still structured and tannic on the palate, yet has terrific concentration and a big finish. Yves said this wine still needs another decade of cellaring, and I can't really disagree.

Big, burly and structured, the 2005 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues is stacked with deep, rich, earthy blackberry and cassis aromas intermixed with minerals, campfire, graphite and garrigue. The palate is medium to full bodied with serious density, ripe tannin and solid underlying structure paired with plenty of length on the finish. This has the fruit to be enjoyable now but needs lots of air (or cellar) time to really shine.

Opaque ruby. Powerful kirsch, boysenberry and candied plum scents are accented by intense Asian spices and flowers. Very sweet in the mouth, with intense dark fruit flavors enlivened by a jolt of minerals on the back. This gains in brightness on the impressively juicy, very long finish.