Famille Perrin
Domaine du Clos des Tourelles
Gigondas
2015

The producer

Famille Perrin is the negociant company of the owners of the esteemed Chateau Beaucastel of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and produces wines from the very best appellations and vineyards of the southern Rhone valley including Chateauneuf-du-Pape and a perfectly-sited 10 hectares of vineyards in Gigondas. All vineyards are cultivated organically and renowned for some of the best fruit in the appellation, predominately Grenache with Syrah, Cinsault and Mourvedre.

The Clos des Tourelles cuvee is a blend of Grenache and Syrah, mostly very old vines from the core of the clos, producing an elegant style of Gigondas of sultry, silky finesse. The l’Argnee Vieille Vignes is usually 100% Grenache from less than one hectare of 100-year-old pre-phylloxera vines, and it is an opulent, rich and powerful Gigondas of immense class. Less than 100 dozen are produced each vintage.

The wine

The Clos des Tourelles cuvee is a blend of Grenache and Syrah, mostly very old vines planted at the foot of the village of Gigondas, and producing an elegant style of Gigondas of sultry, silky finesse. Wild yeast and whole bunch fermentation is followed by around 15 months ageing in oak casks.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.