2011 St Joseph Les Serines
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Tasting notes
Opaque ruby. Fresh blackberry, cherry, pipe tobacco and potpourri on the intensely perfumed nose. Offers appealingly sweet black and blue fruit flavors that put on weight and become spicier and smokier with air. Shows impressive power and thrust on the finish, which emphatically echoes the blackberry and floral notes. This is all old-vines serine, many of them planted in the 1930s.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
A step up on the richness scale, the 2011 Saint Joseph Les Serines is medium-bodied, seamless and also finesse oriented, with fine tannin, beautiful purity and a classy, focused finish. Exhibiting impressive berry fruit, earth, and violet-styled aromas and flavors, this beauty will drink nicely over the coming 7-8 years. Yves releases two cuvees from Cornas, and I found the quality consistent in 2012, yet preferred the Vires release by a fair margin in 2011. There are three Saint Joseph cuvees in red: the Les Pierres Seches, which comes from sand and granite soils around the town of Chavanay; the L'Amarybelle, which comes from high density, terraced plantings of older vines; and lastly, the Les Serines, which comes from the oldest vines of the estate and is the only cuvee to see new oak. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant Ltd., Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990
Inky ruby. A highly perfumed nose displays dark berry preserves, licorice, minerals and pungent flowers. Sweet, penetrating flavors of blackberry, cherry, minerals and bitter chocolate, with a peppery accent. Dense and chewy but energetic, with impressive clarity on the gently tannic, floral-accented finish. Yves told me that these vines range between 40 and 80 years of age.
A step up on the richness scale, the 2011 Saint Joseph Les Serines is medium-bodied, seamless and also finesse oriented, with fine tannin, beautiful purity and a classy, focused finish. Exhibiting impressive berry fruit, earth, and violet-styled aromas and flavors, this beauty will drink nicely over the coming 7-8 years. ||Yves releases two cuvees from Cornas, and I found the quality consistent in 2012, yet preferred the Vires release by a fair margin in 2011. There are three Saint Joseph cuvees in red: the Les Pierres Seches, which comes from sand and granite soils around the town of Chavanay; the L'Amarybelle, which comes from high density, terraced plantings of older vines; and lastly, the Les Serines, which comes from the oldest vines of the estate and is the only cuvee to see new oak. Wine Advocate.December, 2013