Côtes du Rhône Villages, Plan de Dieu Vieilles Vignes, Domaine Saint Damien 2024
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Why this wine
Plan de Dieu is the southern Rhône at its most generous, and Saint Damien sit a short walk from Gigondas with the old vines to prove it. Certified organic since 2012, raised in concrete and bottled unfiltered, it gives you the warmth of the region without the oak.
At a glance
- Grape
- Grenache 80%, Mourvèdre 15%, Carignan 5%
- Region
- Rhône Valley, France
- Alcohol
- 14.50%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Barbecue, Cheese
How it tastes
Savoury, warm and spicy, with generous layered red fruit and prunes over the scrub-herb note the French call garrigue. Full-bodied and dry, it is built on ripe fruit rather than grip, the tannins carried along inside the weight. Grenache 80%, Mourvèdre 15%, Carignan 5%.
The producer
Four generations have worked this family estate since 1821. Joel Saurel, the owner, lives in the tiny hamlet of La Baumette just outside Gigondas, where a chapel was built in honour of Saint Damien, an early Christian saint martyred in 287 AD and held to be the patron saint of doctors; his name was taken into the domaine's own in 1979. Romain Saurel joined his father in 2013, and the estate has been certified organic since 2012. The vines lie in Plan de Dieu - the plain of God - first recorded as 'Plan Dei' on a parchment of 1326 and only designated an appellation for red wine in 2005, an alluvial plateau of calcareous gravel that holds water through hot, arid summers under a classic Mediterranean climate with the Mistral running across it. The grapes were picked at optimum maturity, vinified in the traditional manner for 30 days, aged eight months in concrete vats and bottled without fining or filtration.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16-18°C. It stands up to lamb shoulder, beef daube, barbecued ribs and an aged hard cheese. Drink over the next one to three years, while the fruit is generous; an hour in a decanter opens it out. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.