Chemin de Moscou 2019: one step closer to excellence
Since its first vintage in 2004, Chemin de Moscou has been bottling the best of Domaine Gayda. Between the age of the vines and the experience of the men, with the 2019 vintage this cuvée offers an ever more faithful reflection of a history and a quest for excellence.
On June 26, 2019, Domaine Gayda created quite an event at the prestigious 67 Pall Mall club in London with a comparative tasting of samples from the 2018 vintage aged in nine containers of different size, material and therefore oxygen porosity. From the multi-wine wooden cask to the concrete egg or the stoneware or clay jar, containers have interacted with wine with notable differences. The most renowned British tasters had tasted them (Julia Harding MW for Jancis Robinson MW, Jamie Goode, Simon Field MW, Steven Spurrier…). They had given their verdict on the merits of each container to sublimate the complexity of aromatic expression, length on the palate, integration of tannins, cellaring capacity… Their conclusions were a source of inspiration for the 2019 vintage ageing.
Le Chemin de Moscou is Domaine Gayda’s iconic cuvée. Two thirds of the grapes are Syrah, one third Grenache and a touch of Cinsault. As much as grape varieties, exceptional terroirs come together in this blend. The Syrahs derive their balance from the cool terroir of Brugairolles, on the estate. In the Roussillon region, Vincent Chansault, winemaker-creator of the estate’s wines, and Tim Ford, director, are interested in plots on limestone between Estagel and Calce, on schist near Latour de France, and at altitude in Saint-Martin de Fenouillet. Finally, another terroir par excellence for Syrah, this time in the Languedoc, La Livinière contributes its stone to the edifice in the shape of a saline point, the signature of its limestone soils, right down to the Grenache and Cinsault it also supplies.
Year after year, the formula remains unchanged, as do the label and the name of the cuvée, a tribute to the Moscow tree, at the highest point of the estate and long a landmark for Aéropostale pilots. And yet, it’s clear that the Moscow Way is becoming more and more accomplished every year. Beyond the personality of each vintage, the balance within its structure seems to be refining, while the definition of its bouquet is becoming clearer.
Since the estate was founded in 2003, the vines planted have had almost twenty years to grow and establish themselves (the Roussillon Syrah vines are even more venerable at 40 years old). They offer an aromatic palette and a rendering of the soil in their mouthfeel that grows in complexity and depth every year. Each vintage has also given the Gayda team an ever more precise knowledge of each plot of land, enabling them to fine-tune the timing of the harvest and the vinification process.
“The culmination of all this patient progress in the vineyard and strengthened by our experimentation with nine containers on ageing, the 2019 Chemin de Moscou is thus the most accomplished in our approach to excellence for this cuvée.” Vincent Chansault
