2017 St Joseph Lieu Dit St Joseph
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Tasting notes
Opaque violet color. Energetic, finely etched blackberry, cherry and floral scents are accented by spice and mineral topnotes. Concentrated black/blue fruit and spicecake flavors show sharp detail and vivacity thanks to a core of smoky minerality. Finishes impressively long and smooth, with dark berry and floral qualities, sneaky tannins and bright, mineral-driven persistence. (sourced from the granitic soils of Mauves; 15% new oak)
Critic scores
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Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The flagship 2017 Saint Joseph Lieu-Dit Saint Joseph comes from one of the top vineyards in the appellation and spent 12-14 months in oak. It's another saturated purple-colored 2017 that has beautiful minerality to go with notes of scorched earth, camphor, ground pepper, iron, and leafy herbs. As with a number of top releases in the vintage, it has lots of fruit yet is firm, concentrated, and tight as a drum on the palate. Hide bottles for at least 4-5 years, but it's going to be long-lived. This tiny Northern Rhône estate continues to produce a colossal lineup of wines. While they pull from top estate terroirs around Hermitage and the Northern Rhône, they also have a large négoçiant line that’s loaded with values.
Vivid purple. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe black and blue fruits, peony and incense, along with building baking spice and smoky mineral accents, Shows real depth as well as energy on the palate, offering spice-accented boysenberry, cassis and bitter chocolate flavors and a hint of candied flowers. Shows repeating florality and emphatic, minerally lift on a long, lively finish that's given shape by fine-grained tannins. This vineyard sits on pure granite. (raised in oak barrels, 15% of them new, for 16 months)
Cask sample. Tasted blind. Simplistic, crude fruit with hot alcohol and unbalanced, furry tannins. Misshapen. (RH)