2016 Yves Cheron Gigondas La Grand Comtadine Heritiers Cheron-Misset 750 ml

The 2016 Yves Cheron La Grand Comtadine Heritiers Cheron-Misset is exactly the kind of revelation wine you should fall head over heels in love with over a good meal, just as we did. 

An absolute textbook Gigondas, the 2016 Yves Cheron La Grand Comtadine Heritiers Cheron-Misset is a lush, ravishing beauty for the price, with ripe cherry, grilled Provençal herbs, savory grilled meat, leather, fennel seed, and ending on a peppery tapenade note that made it just about perfect with every dish we paired with it. We’ll always remember it fondly as the bottled oasis that rescued us from a dining desert—the kind that always seems to strike between breakfast and dinner when traversing the French countryside. 

Driving around Gigondas all day is not for the faint of heart—the best vineyards are located up to 600 meters above sea level, which, yes, contributes to the relative freshness and energy of its wines. But it also means those steep, windy roads are almost always responsible for causing us to miss that infamously tiny window of time the Southern French reserve for lunch before literally every restaurant firmly locks its doors at 2 pm sharp until dinner. Sacré bleu.

So by the time we rolled up for our reservation at Carreé Gourmand, a local winemaker bistro right in the heart of Gigondas, we were so ravenous that we almost blew right by our host from that morning. To be fair, his stellar lineup was the real reason we missed our lunch reservation (and to be fairer, he teasingly warned us that would happen the moment we told him our ill-fated plans as we walked down to his cellar). Still, as a bemused consolation, he invited us to sit and dine with him and his companion.

We naturally left the local in charge of the wine, and to our surprise, he ordered this 2016 Yves Cheron Gigondas La Grand Comtadine Heritiers Cheron-Misset. We were only vaguely familiar with the producer, and had never tasted this wine, but we were mostly taken aback that our host would order a 2016 after he spent all morning waxing poetic about the 2015 vintage.

“Ah yes. Well, this morning I was wearing my business beret.” (Reader: he actually had been wearing a beret). “Americans are all about investment wines. The 2015s are exactly that. Strict. Structured. They will behave well in the cellar where they belong right now. Tonight, I prefer to drink something that brings us pleasure… not in ten years, but now.” He and his friend pointed out a few other winemaker acquaintances around the room. Sure enough, they were all mostly drinking 2016 Gigondas. And at least two others had ordered our exact bottle.

When the wine arrived we were reminded once again the real reason behind these trips. You can make as many formal tasting appointments as you want, but these crazy wine discoveries only happen spontaneously. It was positively singing already, but there was enough tannic structure from that high-elevation fruit to ensure its capacity to cellar right alongside those 2015s. It was the only bottle we continued to order all night.

We knew we had to source as much as we could get our hands on for Wine Access members, and that was even before we realized it had a 93 point recommendation from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, which called it “modern and ripe but yummy at the same time.”

We could describe this wine’s unique limestone and clay soils and the impressive 100% sustainable farming that helps showcase that terroir. How Yves Cheron left his family winery in Burgundy in 1983 to head south to assume control of the family’s new domaine in the Southern Rhône, and how since taking over for his father, Yves has steadily built a reputation for an impressive line of pure, elegantly-structured, Grenache-based reds without the rustic characteristics so common in wines from this region.

But honestly, with this gorgeous bottle, it’s not about back-story. It’s about discovery, and that special kind of Gigondas Grenache that somehow manages to be both big and bold while maintaining a zesty, refreshing energy that pairs with anything. And at this price, see if you don’t find yourself reaching for a second bottle at your next impromptu dinner gathering.