Wine Article
2009 Domaine de la Gramiere VdT (Castillon du Gard)
Last edited on 1/18/2012 by ccrida
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From Garagiste / Jon Rimmerman:
"Smile"
Dear Friends,
I'm so happy to have made this wine a personal friend.
It cuts through the clouds – cuts through the sea of uncertainty and does so with the most honest and well-intentioned
character one could imagine. It is there when I need it, listening, pondering and giving back only the most heartfelt advice.
In this wine, I find peace...which is saying nothing and everything at once.
In the same vein as my selection of Chambers St as the top retailer of 2011, you never feel as though La Gramière has an
agenda – there is no motivation to sell anything and no motivation to win you over by promoting, marketing or wishing for
something that could (and should) come naturally to those that choose to amble through an evening or two with a kindred
spirit that eventually becomes a confidant.
In wine, that confidant is La Gramière.
With their tiny and special BIO/organic property, Amy Lillard and Matt Kling have made it ok to be a simple Grenache/Syrah
VdT. They have changed the notion of “country-French” from a furniture aesthetic to one of winemaking bravado where
rustic equals regal. The time spent in the vineyard and in the cellar, cajoling their offspring to a point where it can fly on its
own, is almost unreal – worth far more in a monetary sense than they could ever recoup for their effort.
Then why do it?
That question is answered as soon as you pull the cork.
Not that it is new news - we profiled this heart-warming Southern Rhone property (and story) last year but that was the 2008
vintage – a wonderful success in a year that required meticulous hand-picking and sorting grape by grape to achieve
anything of substance (which they did with aplomb).
This, on the other hand, is 2009 and I can predict with my usual fortune-tellers fairy dust that the 2009 La Gramière “La
Gramière” (the winery’s top effort) will be among the most popular wines we bring to your table in 2012 – it is a rolling ball
of lip-smacking, bursting-at-the-seems, fresh and downright delicious red fruit that you want to keep pulling from your
holster again and again. It has sophistication beyond its years but also a naïveté that is equally alluring. The fruit is so
natural, fresh and pure in composition, you taste it intertwined with the ripe vintage in such a way that the two are never
confused (a nearly impossible achievement for any winemaker – i.e. this wine tastes like La Gramière first and foremost and
the vintage second).
In the end, as with any bottle of wine you decide to engage in a relationship, however brief – a dalliance or a long-term
proposal, it must speak to you, understand who you are and why you’ve chosen to be you...
...or it just tastes darn good.
With La Gramière, you have both.
This parcel is directly from the cellar at La Gramière, hand picked, packed, labeled and loved by Amy and Matt – from their
hands to yours:
2009 La Gramière “La Gramière” VdT (Castillon du Gard)
"Smile"
Dear Friends,
I'm so happy to have made this wine a personal friend.
It cuts through the clouds – cuts through the sea of uncertainty and does so with the most honest and well-intentioned
character one could imagine. It is there when I need it, listening, pondering and giving back only the most heartfelt advice.
In this wine, I find peace...which is saying nothing and everything at once.
In the same vein as my selection of Chambers St as the top retailer of 2011, you never feel as though La Gramière has an
agenda – there is no motivation to sell anything and no motivation to win you over by promoting, marketing or wishing for
something that could (and should) come naturally to those that choose to amble through an evening or two with a kindred
spirit that eventually becomes a confidant.
In wine, that confidant is La Gramière.
With their tiny and special BIO/organic property, Amy Lillard and Matt Kling have made it ok to be a simple Grenache/Syrah
VdT. They have changed the notion of “country-French” from a furniture aesthetic to one of winemaking bravado where
rustic equals regal. The time spent in the vineyard and in the cellar, cajoling their offspring to a point where it can fly on its
own, is almost unreal – worth far more in a monetary sense than they could ever recoup for their effort.
Then why do it?
That question is answered as soon as you pull the cork.
Not that it is new news - we profiled this heart-warming Southern Rhone property (and story) last year but that was the 2008
vintage – a wonderful success in a year that required meticulous hand-picking and sorting grape by grape to achieve
anything of substance (which they did with aplomb).
This, on the other hand, is 2009 and I can predict with my usual fortune-tellers fairy dust that the 2009 La Gramière “La
Gramière” (the winery’s top effort) will be among the most popular wines we bring to your table in 2012 – it is a rolling ball
of lip-smacking, bursting-at-the-seems, fresh and downright delicious red fruit that you want to keep pulling from your
holster again and again. It has sophistication beyond its years but also a naïveté that is equally alluring. The fruit is so
natural, fresh and pure in composition, you taste it intertwined with the ripe vintage in such a way that the two are never
confused (a nearly impossible achievement for any winemaker – i.e. this wine tastes like La Gramière first and foremost and
the vintage second).
In the end, as with any bottle of wine you decide to engage in a relationship, however brief – a dalliance or a long-term
proposal, it must speak to you, understand who you are and why you’ve chosen to be you...
...or it just tastes darn good.
With La Gramière, you have both.
This parcel is directly from the cellar at La Gramière, hand picked, packed, labeled and loved by Amy and Matt – from their
hands to yours:
2009 La Gramière “La Gramière” VdT (Castillon du Gard)