Producer Article
Domaine Saint-Damien
Last edited on 11/9/2011 by tooch
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Producer website
I was blown away by how the 2007 Gigondas cuvees, which I had rated very highly from barrel last year, had put on weight and texture, and had become essentially as compelling as Gigondas can be. Clearly St.-Damien’s young proprietor, Joel Saurel, has moved this estate alongside the appellation’s two superstars, Domaine Santa Duc and Chateau Saint-Cosme. The three cuvees of 2007 Gigondas are absolutely profound. I am not sure I haven’t underrated them as I had them on two separate occasions and the numerical scores listed are actually from the lower rated tasting. Come what may, these are unreal wines. For statisticians, these wines are aged 6-8 weeks in cement tanks before they are moved to old wood foudres for 12 months prior to being bottled unfined and unfiltered. The renowned Philippe Cambie is the consultant. All three of these Gigondas cuvees are amazing wines. Kudos to Joel Saurel! - Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
St.-Damien was an Early Christian saint (martyred in the year 287 A.D.), considered the patron saint of doctors. There was a chapel to his honor in the tiny hamlet of La Baumette, just outside the village of Gigondas, where Joel Saurel lives. Saurel’s ancestors thus took the name St.-Damien for the domaine.
I was blown away by how the 2007 Gigondas cuvees, which I had rated very highly from barrel last year, had put on weight and texture, and had become essentially as compelling as Gigondas can be. Clearly St.-Damien’s young proprietor, Joel Saurel, has moved this estate alongside the appellation’s two superstars, Domaine Santa Duc and Chateau Saint-Cosme. The three cuvees of 2007 Gigondas are absolutely profound. I am not sure I haven’t underrated them as I had them on two separate occasions and the numerical scores listed are actually from the lower rated tasting. Come what may, these are unreal wines. For statisticians, these wines are aged 6-8 weeks in cement tanks before they are moved to old wood foudres for 12 months prior to being bottled unfined and unfiltered. The renowned Philippe Cambie is the consultant. All three of these Gigondas cuvees are amazing wines. Kudos to Joel Saurel! - Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
St.-Damien was an Early Christian saint (martyred in the year 287 A.D.), considered the patron saint of doctors. There was a chapel to his honor in the tiny hamlet of La Baumette, just outside the village of Gigondas, where Joel Saurel lives. Saurel’s ancestors thus took the name St.-Damien for the domaine.
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