Domaine des Pasquiers Cotes du Rhone, 2007

Domaine des Pasquiers is to be distinguished from Domaine du Pesquier, but you won't go wrong with either label. Both are traditionally run estates in the same general area of the Southern Rhone.

With cellars located in Sablet, the Pasquiers estate covers 90 hectares in Gigondas, the Plan de Dieu, Sablet and other areas of the Cotes du Rhone. The third generation of their family to farm the vineyards, brothers Jean Claude and Philippe Lambert took over from their father in 1999 and have been bottling under the Pasquiers label since 2002. (Previously the wine was sold to negotiants.) With the exception of the CDR Villages Plan de Dieu l'Envol (which is aged partly in new oak barriques), all of the Pasquiers wines are made traditionally and aged in cement tanks.

The 2007 Pasquiers Cotes du Rhone is a very deep, saturated crimson, and the aromas are equally deep and powerful--skin tannins galore. Flavors and smells are dominated by red berries, cherries, herbs and purple flowers. The wine is a big mouthful, much like a young Gigondas. It's impressive, but for my taste still a bit too tannic and alcoholic (14%) to really enjoy. I would like to come back to this and other 2007 Pasquiers offerings in a year or two.