2016 St Joseph Blanc

Moving to the two Saint Joseph Blanc releases, the 2016 Saint Joseph Blanc offers terrific notes of white flowers, citrus, and orange blossom, with a medium-bodied, fresh, clean, nicely balanced style. Like all the 2016s here, it’s fresh, crisp, and lively. Due to the timing of my visit (which was earlier than normal), I wasn’t able to taste a full lineup from Guigal. Nevertheless, even an abbreviated lineup from Guigal consists of more wines than just about every other producer I taste with. Looking at the 2016s, the white wines, especially from Condrieu, are brilliant and show the more fresh, vibrant style of this cooler, late vintage. The reds are very classic in style across the board. I’ll taste these again, mostly from barrel, next year as well, but this is certainly an excellent vintage. The 2015s, as I’ve written more than once now, are truly spectacular, and after tasting these wines multiple times from barrel now, I completely understand why Marcel Guigal would declare this the greatest vintage of his lifetime. These are rich, voluptuous, massive wines I think will represent a modern-day version of 1978. The 2014s continue to improve every time I taste them, which is common for this estate. Similar, perhaps, to a toned down 2012, these are charming, supple, elegant wines that are vastly more approachable than the 2013s. Lastly, the 2013s from bottle showed the backward, dark, mineral-laced profile of the vintage. They’re beautifully concentrated and terrific wines, yet the cellar is going to be your friend.

The 2016 Saint Joseph Blanc is 95% Marsanne and 5% Roussanne, half of which was aged in barriques and half in stainless steel. Toasted marshmallow aromas signal the use of some new oak, while the palate is plump and rounded, with just enough citrus for balance. Like the other entry-level whites here, it should be consumed in its youth.