2006 - Saint-Joseph Granits Rouge, M. Chapoutier

The wine of the lineup (the 2010 may surpass it in a few years), the 2006 Saint Joseph Les Granits is a blockbuster. Coming from a dry, hot vintage (and a very strong vintage in general for this estate), it has awesome depth and concentration to go with classic Northern Rhone meatiness, minerality, dried spices and dark fruit on the nose. Filling the mouth with fruit, it’s perfectly balanced, has sweet tannin and a finish that won’t quit. Given this showing, I wouldn’t hesitate to start cracking bottles, but it has at least another decade of prime drinking. Michel Chapoutier continues to knockout it out of the park with his tiny, single plot “Selections Parcellaires” releases from throughout the Rhone Valley. For this tasting, we focused on three of his northern Rhones: the Saint Joseph Les Granits, which is the largest production cuvee of the three; his new release, the Saint Joseph Les Clos, from a newly replanted vineyard that’s just now coming online; and his Ermitage Les Greffieux, which is a vineyard that Michel is liking more and more. Starting off with the Saint Josephs, Chapoutier’s Les Granits releases, both in red and white, lead the way in terms of quality in the appellation. Looking at the Saint Joseph red that’s the focus here, this roughly 500-case release (it can get close to 1,000 cases in some vintage) comes from the lieux-dits Saint Joseph and Les Chames, both of which are located around the towns of Mauve and Tournon, and have superb, southerly exposure. The lieu-dit Saint Joseph is the vineyard that the appellation is named after, and it’s a gorgeous, steep, south-facing vineyard planted on pure decomposed granite soils. The wine is 100% Syrah, from 60-to-70-year old vines, and sees a similar elevage to all of Chapoutier’s Syrahs, with the grapes completely destemmed and aging occurring in a scant 20-25% new French oak barrels. As I hope these notes show, it ages beautifully, but also dishes out loads of pleasure in its youth as well. It just

Bright red. Mineral-driven red berry and cherry aromas slowly unfold, picking up floral and Indian spice character. Youthfully clenched cherry and berry skin flavors turn sweeter with air, betraying no rough edges. Seems closed today but I don't detect much tannin. Finishes with good peppery cut and length.