2010 St Cosme en primeur; 2009 on tasting
“Top-flight, world-class wines” - Robert Parker
Taking the left fork on the way up to Gigondas gets you to the HQ of Louis Barruol and his manor house, quite an imposing complex nestled below the village. It used to hold the entire output of the estate in its small, original cellars - some of the most congested we've seen and impossible to work in. Now, just up the hill a bit, are spacious new cellars and a bottling area with easier access for trucks. This is Louis' patrimoine and where this fierce, energetic and fastidious man performs his alchemy.
Louis has been making spectacular wines for years from his vineyards in the highest part of the upper valley that abuts the Dentelles de Montmirail. Here his vines are sheltered from the unrelenting sun and produce vividly fresh wines, bursting with blue fruit. Even in difficult years for him, like his hail struck 2009s, the wines are striking in their energy and life, intense and fresh. A bit of time in bottle is doing them only good and so you should come and taste them today. /CW
'It has taken a while, but one of my favorite producers in the southern Rhone, Louis Barruol of Saint-Cosme, is getting very good publicity just about everywhere I look. It is certainly well-deserved, considering the broad range of wines he produces, from his inexpensive and over-delivering Cotes du Rhones and Vins de Pays, to his top-flight, world-class wines made in Gigondas. This is all a matter of hard work and understanding viticulture and great terroirs.' - Robert Parker, Wine Advocate, October 2011
