2015 St Joseph Lieu Dit St Joseph
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Tasting notes
Aged in 50% new oak barrels. Sweet vanilla spices on the nose, but with plentiful fruit playing nicely alongside. Smoke character on the palate, and attractive liquorice scent with a bitterness that integrates well with the savoury black fruit. (RH)
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
The Saint Joseph Lieu Dit Saint Joseph releases all come from a fabulous south-facing, granite hillside located just to the south of Tournon. The 2015 Saint Joseph Lieu Dit Saint Joseph is a full-bodied, sexy beast of a wine that boasts a saturated purple color, huge notes of blackberries, burning embers, graphite, and background oak, a stacked mid-palate, and sweet yet building tannins. Despite all its richness and depth, it has thrilling purity of fruit and is impeccably balanced. Don’t miss this beauty! The big news at the Guigal estate is the purchase of Domaine de Nalys in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The family has always wanted an estate in the South, and Nalys is an unrealized treasure trove of awesome terroir and old vines, both of which I’ve no doubt will be maximized by this talented family. In addition, the former winemaker at Paul Jaboulet Aîné, Jacques Desvernois, has joined the team, and while it’s not clear exactly what his role will be, I suspect he will largely lead the charge at Domaine de Nalys. Either way, Desvernois is an incredible talent and can only add to what is already a well-oiled machine. As to the wines reviewed in this report, I was able to taste multiple vintages of each of the cuvées and have listed the wines by cuvée as opposed to by vintage, which is how we tasted through the wines.
Bottled October 2018. Tastes very much like an oak barrel at the moment – the clove spice is really very strong. Silty tannins, dark savoury black fruit on the finish. Still very young and furry. (RH)
As the 2015 Saint-Joseph Lieu-Dit Saint-Joseph had been recently bottled when I tasted it last year and rated it 94 points, I've retasted it and upgraded it a point. Despite being aged in 100% new oak for close to 24 months, it shows only subtle hints of pencil shavings and vanilla on the nose, testament to the substance of the wine. Crushed stones play a role on the nose as well, emblematic of the site's granitic soils, while the velvety mouthfeel of this full-bodied wine delivers waves of rich, concentrated cherries that linger elegantly on the finish.