Domaine Les Pallieres, Gigondas Terrasses du Diable, 2011 SO112025 Guiberteau in the cool Santa Lucia

in the cool Santa Lucia Highlands

made Cabernet Franc into a vin de garde long before the region was fashionable

A magnum of Roberto Conterno's Cascina Francia from the famously hot 2003 summer

so what arrives in the glass is laser-clean: lime

and the region’s natural poise

Domaine Les Pallieres, Gigondas Terrasses du Diable, 2011 SO112025 Guiberteau in the cool Santa LuciaA great Gigondas from Les Pallieres, the storied estate the Brunier family of Vieux Telegraphe revived alongside Kermit Lynch in 1998. Terrasse du Diable comes from the highest, coolest, steeply terraced plots on stony limestone scree from the Dentelles de Montmirail, between roughly 250 and 400 meters. It's the more powerful of the estate's two cuvees, mostly old vine Grenache rounded out with Mourvedre and Clairette, aged in large foudre and bottled