In her blog, journalist and writer Jacqueline Friedrich enjoyed the 2005 Clos de Gamot:
April 24, 2008: Wine of the Week: 2005 Cahors Clos de Gamot:
Jean Jouffreau’s domaine not only could be but has been the poster
child for French Family Farms: in 1968 the domaine won first prize in
the Ministry of Agriculture’s French Farm competition. The dog-and-pony
show that followed brought the Jouffreaus to the lawn of the White
House. The prize was well deserved. The eco-serious Jouffreaus have 12
hectares of vines in the Cahors appellation. The grapes for this wine,
from 45 to 123 years old, grow on a terrace whose soils are composed of
clay and silex. The grapes are hand harvested, at 38 hl/ha, vat for
roughly 25 days (depending on the vintage) and the wine ages for 18
months in large old barrels before being bottled unfined and
unfiltered. They say that the wine is austere in its youth and gains
complexity and suppleness after 8 to ten years of age. I tasted this
wine in the beginning of the month at Hostellerie Le Vert
(see Out & About) and the word ‘austere’ did not figure in my
tasting notes. Charm, however, was oft repeated. The wine was deeply
colored, with heady aromas of black cherries and violets. Juicy black
cherry flavors enveloped a core of solid stone. I imagine that, with
age, the wine will develop spicy notes that would have married
beautifully with the chef’s cumin-scented lamb but why wait? I couldn’t
stop drinking it and believe that I harvested every bottle on every
table in the room.