Château Gigault Cuvée Viva 2015

Château Gigault was recently acquired by four like-minded quality enthusiasts, and now releases two wines – a traditionally made claret and this, their no expense spared Cuvée Viva. One of the four owners is Stéphane Derenoncourt, who also makes wine at some of Saint Emilion’s greatest estates (La Mondotte, Canon La Gaffelière and Pavie Macquin). America’s leading critic Robert Parker always scores the wine highly, describing it as “consistently one of my picks as an overachieving wine”, and this particular vintage as “a big mouthful of Merlot, structure and grip, with good density on the finish”. Hand picked, low yield Merlot aged in new oak, this is a deeply flavoured, well structured claret, and velvety smooth, too. Ideal with lamb.