When the legendary Cornas producer Robert Michel retired after the 2006 vintage, he passed down his cellar and vineyard holdings to his young protégé, Guillaume Gilles. Gilles had helped make Michel’s final vintages some of his best, in addition to having spent years honing his craft as an assistant to Jean-Louis Chave in Hermitage. When drinking Guillaume Gilles’ wines, it is plainly evident that he picked up a few tricks working under two of the Rhône Valley’s most legendary producers. His wines are brilliant across the board. 

 The “La Combe de Chaillot” hails from one of the great vineyards of France’s northern Rhône Valley.  There are no official Grand Crus in this region—but if there were, Chaillot would easily earn the distinction. This is not only one of the great Syrah-growing vineyards in France but the world. Chaillot’s unique crumbly granite and limestone soils have become synonymous with some of our favorite wines of the last century—Verset, Robert Michel, Thierry Allemand. This is a truly historic and special parcel. Guillaume Gilles works a lower plot of Chaillot which, due to slightly looser and sandier composition, produces fruit that is just a touch softer and fuller than that of its neighbors above. In order to accentuate this generous and open character—and to produce a wine that drinks a little younger than his others—Gilles de-stems the fruit prior to fermentation. Like all Gilles’ wines, farming here is organic, vinification is carried out in enormous neutral oak casks, and aged for years before release. There are less than 200 cases of this extremely sought after cuvée on the planet and we have been fortunate to acquire all that remains available in the US.