It's a Gigondas!

By Rob Bralow

Remember that photo I showed you last week about the good packaging that came from Cotes-du-Rhone? It doesn't matter, I am going to show it to you again anyway.


Isn't that lovely? Simple and elegant. It actually inspired me to do a similar wrap on all of my bottle gifts that I gave for the holidays in artfully taped paper. Mine looked nothing like the photo above, I actually have no artistic talent, only taste (good or bad, it's still taste!).

I was very pleased to find that one of those bottles was the 2005 Pierre Amadieu Gigondas Romane Machotte . That's a lot of names for one wine, but what you need to really know is that the wine is from Gigondas, made by Pierre Amadieu. Got it?

Gigondas is a Southern AOC in the Rhone Valley in France. This AOC produces only red wines, with very little Rose as well. This particular wine is made from Grenache and Syrah and I could drink it all day.

The nose had a nice perfume with a mix of figs and dried cherries. In my mouth the wine was rich and vibrant, pushing red cherry, fig and some pepper through a steady structure and ending with a little anise. Really yummy, I would pick one up pronto. For $25, I think this is properly valued.