Domaine les Goubert
Located in the heart of the Gigondas vineyards (west of the actual village center), this family run estate has been in the Cartier/Goubert family since 1653 and has been run by Jean-Pierre and Mireille Cartier since the 1970s. The domaine is comprised of roughly 23 Ha (57 acres) situated throughout Gigondas, Beaumes de Venise, Lafare, Sablet and Seguret. While they produce a number of wines, their flagship bottling is the Cuvée Florence which is named after Mireille and Jean-Pierre’s daughter. Given how it’s common today to call domaines that use new barrique “modern”, readers might be surprised to know that the domaine has been aging this Cuvée for upwards of 24 months in 50% new french oak since 1985.
Currently, all grapes are de-stemmed and slightly crushed prior to fermentation with blending taking place after maturing. The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered and the domaine also performs a single bottling session.
I drank through each of these bottles over a number of days and came away pretty impressed. While the 1990 Gigondas Traditional faded quickly, the Cuvée Florence is certainly an outstanding, cellar worthy wine. Each vintage offered similar aromatics with beautiful purity, balance and ripe fruit and it’s easy to imagine the younger vintages aging similar to the fully mature yet regal ‘86. Given the spice, red fruit and silky textured profile, burgundy lovers should find a lot to enjoy with these wines as well.
2001 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas Cuvée Florence (France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Gigondas)
The 2001 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas Cuvée Florence is aged half in new oak and half in one year old barrels and possesses a perfumed and subtle bouquet of spiced cherries, licorice, spice box and Turkish coffee aromas that lead into a medium to full bodied palate. Smooth, integrated and balanced, this has beautiful freshness and acidity, a silky texture and a long finish. While the barrique aging is still apparent, it complements rather than detracts. Drinking well now, everything points to this aging beautifully. (91 pts.)
1998 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas Cuvée Florence (France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Gigondas)
The deep red colored 1998 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas Cuvée Florence is very rich and meaty with sour cherry, smoky earth, spice box, violets and floral notes leading into a medium to full bodied palate. There’s nice sweetness to the fruit but also notable freshness and purity paired with a smooth texture and a long finish. An ever so slight dry edge to the tannins should be something to watch. (90+? pts.)
1995 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas Cuvée Florence(France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Gigondas)
Reminiscent of the ‘01 Cuvée Florence, the 1995 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas Cuvée Florence possesses fantastic aromatics of dried cherries, spice box, peppered meat and licorice. Beautifully ripe with nice complexity, the palate is medium to full bodied with a core of sweet fruit, a smooth, rich texture, impressive balance and a long finish. This has serious fruit density on the palate paired with mouth numbing, ripe, fine grained tannins on the finish and while a beautiful drink now, has a long life ahead of it. (92 pts.)
1986 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas Cuvée Florence(France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Gigondas)
The fully mature 1986 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas Cuvée Florence shows pretty aromatics of sweet black cherries and dried red fruits intermixed with black tea, forest floor and subtle suavage and licorice aromas. In the mouth, it’s medium bodied with a light, smooth and integrated texture to go along with sweet, mature fruit that fades on the finish to show the acid and tannin structure of the wine. This needs air to show well with the fruit sweetening and gaining depth over the course of the evening and while I have no doubt that I would have liked this wine more 10 years ago, it still offers lots of enjoyment. I wrote this note based on drinking through half the bottle over the course of an evening and originally rated it 88 points. Unfortunately, this showed subtle TCA early on the second day and was undrinkable by the evening.(NR)
1990 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas (France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Gigondas)
Sporting a red color with obvious bricking/orange at the edges, the 1990 Domaine les Goubert Gigondas offers up tired aromas of dried fruits, hot asphalt, truffle, dirt and leather. On the palate, this faded quickly in the glass but for a short time, showed medium body with a smooth, integrated texture, sweet fruit and nice grip to the finish. With air however, the acidity kicked in on the finish and the fruit receded, so if you have em, drink em. (80 pts.)