Last bottle of a variable half-case picked up at auction. Thankfully this bottle on form.
Some age showing at the rim, but pretty healthy colour for it's age. It's somewhat peppery, even sawdust-like on the nose with a faint whiff of truffle. Not much in the way of primary fruit now.
Quite rich-textured on the palate, with peppery fruit that's more full than the nose suggested. The finish lacks a little length due to a drying finish, but there is some residual flavour of good complexity.
Overall a good bottle and interesting wine, and though an ideal candidate for cellaring, there is more variability than you'd want and it's difficult to imagine there's an obvious and accepted 'peak', just different stages in the wine's life (even more so than with other cellaring wines).
postscript: Gigondas doesn't have a huge reputation as a cellar prospect, but this estate produces very much a cellaring style Gigondas. That said, with accusations of Brett on the loose in their wines and a potentially unbalanced style, it's not IMO a clear-cut cellaring classic. A cellar-builder for a gambler perhaps.
I'm not averse to a gamble for something interesting, even challenging 