2015 M. Chapoutier Saint-Joseph Les Granits Blanc
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Tasting notes
Bright gold. Fresh nectarine, pear nectar, chamomile and an exotic truffle nuance on the highly fragrant nose. Juicy and focused on the palate, showing impressive vivacity for a hot year and offering sappy orchard and pit fruit flavors that are given spine by a core of smoky minerality. Shows outstanding clarity and mineral lift on the finish, which hangs on with superb, floral- and mineral-tinged persistence.
Critic scores
Tim Atkin MW
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
Vivid yellow. Highly perfumed, expansive aromas of orange zest, yellow plum, jasmine and sweet butter pick up a smoky mineral nuance in the glass. Deeply concentrated and focused as well, offering ripe citrus and orchard fruit flavors with a refreshingly bitter edge and an undercurrent of dusty minerals. Tense, pure and vibrant for its weight, finishing with solid mineral thrust and persistent floral and orange notes.
A wine I’ve always loved, the 2015 St Joseph Les Granits Blanc is, I suspect, the greatest white to ever come from this appellation. Made from 100% Marsanne all from the St Joseph lieu-dit, aged 80% in demi-muids (15% new) and the rest in stainless steel, this sensational white offers loads of minerality in addition to citrus blossom, buttered hazelnuts, toasted bread and hints of orchard fruits. It needs a year or two of bottle age, but is an incredible white. Bravo to the team at Chapoutier for this effort.
2 ha, 100% Marsanne, very old vines south of Tournon grown on steep granite slopes. Slightly honeyed, tangy pineapple and Eastern spices (turmeric) on the nose, and some considered, unobtrusive oak. Lovely texture, very smooth mouthfeel. This is a rich and relatively full-bodied Granits, perhaps without the definition and cut 2014, but nonetheless well balanced, poised and polished. Apr 2016, Matt Walls, www.timatkin.com, Drink: 2016-2021