2013 St Joseph Ste Epine
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
Saturated ruby. Intensely perfumed dark berry aromas, complicated by violet pastille, olive and licorice nuances. Sweet and perfumed in the mouth, showing excellent lift and clarity to the fresh blackberry, boysenberry and candied violet flavors. Sappy and penetrating, offering excellent finishing thrust, harmonious tannins and lingering spiciness. This suave wine is balanced to age, but I find it very sexy now.
Critic scores
Average Score
Josh Raynolds
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
A blockbuster northern Rhone is the 2013 Saint Joseph Sainte Epine, which comes from a single vineyard of pure granite soils. This site is basically identical to the granite soils prevalent in the Bessards lieu-dit in Hermitage, yet the soil is slightly more acidic and it is cooler and windier. Harvest normally stretches into October and it’s completely destemmed, vinified in concrete tank and aged 18 months in 40% new French oak. Inky colored and possessing more than a passing resemblance to a top flight Hermitage, it offers classic powdered rock, graphite, cassis, creosote and smoked earth. Medium to full-bodied, pure, with good acidity and a full mid-palate, it needs short term cellaring -- but will hold for two decades.
Opaque ruby. Musky, deeply pitched cherry and blackcurrant scents are lifted by Asian spices and fresh flowers, with a licorice note in the background. Sappy and focused in the mouth, offering vibrant dark berry and bitter cherry flavors along with hints of spicecake and cracked pepper. Closes chewy and long, leaving smoke-accented floral and blackberry notes behind.