Among all the Southern Rhone wines, the most famous is certainly y-du-Pape. However, given its fame, you will unlikely to find a cheap but good CdP. If you want to look for a cheaper alternative, Gigondas is one of the good choices. Gigondas is situated in the north of CdP. The wine is rich and bold. It may not have the elegant touch of a good CdP but it is offering good value for money. Same as CdP, the wine is made mainly by Grenache with added Syrah and Mourvedre.
This 2007 Gigondas La Gille, Perrin & Fils costs only slightly more than HK$100 from UK. It was picked as one of the top 100 by Wine Spectator in 2010 and ranked as 78. Although personally I never really care about this Wine Spectator Top 100, still I guess it shouldn’t be bad if Wine Spectator picked it as one of the top 100.
The wine is really quite good. Tannins are ripe and fine. Abundant rich and sweet fruit flavours of blackberry, blackcherry, licorice and minerality. A very well-made wine that I really enjoy drinking it even if it did not have outstanding complexity.