2015 St Joseph Les Granits

The 2015 Saint Joseph Les Granits is another knockout wine, and if it wasn’t for its Le Clos counterpart, it would be the wine of the vintage. Coming all from the namesake vineyard of the appellation (the lieu-dit Saint Joseph), it offers a huge nose of black raspberries, Provençal herbs, spice and saddle leather. Much more open, sexy and opulent than the more concentrated, yet backward Les Varonniers, it's an incredible wine to drink anytime over the coming two decades. Enough can’t be said about the quality coming from the estate of Michel Chapoutier. Taking over the domaine from his father in the late 1980s (his first vintage was 1989), Michel quickly moved the estate completely to bio-dynamic farming as well as building a new, state of the art winery located just outside of Tain l’Hermitage. These are classic, traditionally made wines that are never acidified (or chaptalized), are brought up mostly in demi-muids (with plenty of used oak), and bottled unfined and unfiltered. He also continues to grow the brand (this is easily one of the largest tastings I do every year from a single producer) and has added two new Côte Rôties in 2015, the Quatrain and Neve cuvees. The Quatrain is reserved for grapes that didn’t make it into the selection parcellaire releases, and the Neve comes from a single parcel in the northern part of the appellation. Both are impressive wines, although I don’t envy anyone trying to explain the full portfolio to buyers in the market. In addition, while it’s easy to focus on the top cuvées from this estate, the portfolio is packed with incredible values at just about every price point. These reviews focus on the 2015 and 2016 vintages, with all the 2015s tasted out of bottle and the majority of the 2016s still resting in barrel. The 2015 vintage is a monumental one for this estate and matches (and in a few cases, eclipses) what was accomplished in 2009 and 2010. These are ripe, concentrated, structured wines that are going to demand cellar time. In contrast, the 2016s are more elegant and silky, with terrific purity of fruit. They don’t have the sheer grandeur of fruit found in the 2015s, yet are seriously concentrated and have no shortage of tannins and structure.

The full-bodied 2015 Saint Joseph les Granits is among the top wines of the appellation. Bursting with cassis, mocha and spice, it boasts a rich, creamy texture on the mid-palate, easing into a velvety finish backed by plentiful, powerful tannins. This may seem almost approachable, but patience will be rewarded.

Opaque ruby. Smoky cherry, blackberry, spicecake and licorice pastille aromas on the highly perfumed nose. Plush, open-knit dark fruit preserve flavors carry a peppery nuance and gain vivacity with aeration. Spicy and pliant on the impressively persistent finish, which shows appealing sweetness, gentle tannins and a late blast of smoky minerality.