2024 Domaine Durban Gigondas

Crunchy, vivid, and completely alive — wild herbs, dark cherry, violet, garrigue, and a stony salinity that runs clean through the finish with a freshness you don't expect from Gigondas. The 2024 Domaine de Durban is organically farmed 70% Grenache and 30% Syrah from a few hectares of high-altitude limestone above the Dentelles de Montmirail, entirely destemmed, native yeast, six months in concrete, never touches oak — released early to preserve exactly the kind of vigorous energy that sets this wine apart from the extracted, oak-driven Gigondas most producers make. The Leydier family has farmed this plateau since Jacques bought the neglected estate in the 1960s — the soils contain Roman roof tiles and medieval pottery shards, and Pliny the Elder was the first to praise the wines from this exact hillside. Henri and Philippe Leydier carry it forward now. One of the great bargains in the Southern Rhône, at a price that borders on irrational. Kermit Lynch import.