2016 Xavier Vignon Arcane IX L'Hermite Gigondas 750 ml

The 2016 growing season was superb in the Southern Rhône, combining a bevy of hot, sun-filled days with unusually cool evenings. Particularly beneath the white crags of Les Dentelles de Montmirail, those cool nights slowed down the maturation cycle, allowing winemaker Xavier Vignon to give tight-fisted grape clusters extra hang time without any concern for overripeness or desiccation. The result was a spectacular small-berry harvest that many compare favorably to the historic 2010 and 2001 vintages.

Due to the evenness of the growing season, Vignon picked the varieties simultaneously and then co-fermented, a Rhône Valley winemaker’s secret tactic in vintages that allow for it. He aged the majority of the barrels in the cellar, comme d’habitude. Then he submerged the rest of the barrels in large tanks of wine.

After several years, it was apparent that the texture and tannin structure of the experimental batch was more sophisticated, complex, and suave than its traditionally aged cousin. Xavier blended the barrels, bottled the daring Gigondas, and then buried the entire production in a cool corner of his cellars in Chateauneuf-du-Pape before releasing it.

This is an absolutely stunning wine. With 94 points from Jeb Dunnuck and 93 from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, it’s a Gigondas that speaks of the extraordinary 2016 vintage and the ingenious touch of a winemaker/enologist who can’t help but push the envelope in the cellar.

You can drink the 2016 Hermite now for the sheer hedonism of it all, but we recommend you lay this one down in a cool cellar for the better part of a decade.