Gigondas Les Vignes Blanches 2023

The Gigondas Les Vignes Blanches from Domaine de Longue-Toque comes from Gigondas, at the foot of the Dentelles de Montmirail, in the Vaucluse. It comes from three sectors: Trois Yeux, perched at 500 metres above sea level on limestone scree and Cretaceous marls; Montmirail, facing south on red clays; and Teyssonnières, on safre of clay and sand. This 2023 vintage marks the debut of the Gigondas appellation for white wine.

The organically grown grapes are harvested by hand in the early hours of the day, then pressed directly as whole bunches. After 48 hours of cold settling, fermentation begins in stainless-steel tanks, then continues partly in 600-litre demi-muids, for twenty days below 20 °C. Ageing lasts six months in demi-muids for the whole cuvée.

This wine reveals notes of honeysuckle, white flowers, pear, white peach, lemon zest, walnut, sweet spices and limestone. Beneath a pale gold colour, bright and crystalline, the bouquet is complex and elegant. The palate, medium-bodied, is rounded and satiny, both fresh and lively, before a dense, long finish.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.