t has long been known that the vineyards around the villages of Mauves, Tourney, St. Jean-de-Muzols and Glun produce some of the greatest Syrah in the world. Domaine Coursodon’s vineyards sites are located only in Saint-Joseph, scattered amongst these four premier villages. Today’s offer is a distinct bottling made from fruit grown in each of these locations. Since the 1920s, Domaine Coursodon has been working their vines in Saint-Joseph with deep passion and pride. Today, father Pierre mans the vineyards while his son, Jerome, handles the winemaking. Though Pierre is a bit old-school, focusing on terroir and strict vineyard management practices, Jerome sees the importance of implementing modern winemaking techniques. He is not afraid to utilize these techniques if it means the quality of the wine will increase. Together, this father and son team balance out each other’s styles—bringing just the right amount of tradition and innovation to their magnificent collection of wines.

Domaine Coursodon was first and foremost a strong pioneer in the Saint-Joseph appellation—pleasing critics and enthusiasts with their excellent wines which show complexity, depth and decadent fruit, though still possessing classic savory characteristics of great Northern Rhône Syrah. I will admit that as I have tasted the wines from this producer over the last couple of years, they have easily been placed at the top of my list next to Pierre Gonon, Faury and Jean-Louis Chave. I have utmost respect for Pierre and Jerome’s wines and expect that vintages to come will only become more impressive. They dedicate much of their time to manually farming their incredibly steep vineyards sites with a highly sustainable approach. Planted in granitic soils with some loess and clay, this wine boasts a delicious, rocky minerality with excellent body and a velvet like texture. After harvesting the grapes by hand, they are destemmed, fermented with native yeasts, and then the wine is aged in a combination of old barriques and stainless steel. Like the noble Syrah from Hermitage, this wine is powerful but finessed, and is anything but shy.

The 2013 Silice has a dark purple core that moves to magenta hues on the rim. The aromatics explode with dense notes of ripe boysenberry and blueberry, and black plums balanced by dried a hint of meat, olive tapenade, fresh violets and crushed granite. Flavors of beautiful wild fruits are in perfect harmony with more savory, classic flavors of wild mushrooms, dried meat, black olives, wild herbs and a hint of black pepper. This wine is medium plus in body with a purity of fruit not often seen in the regions wines. This wine is drinking beautifully in its youth, though the true beauty will be seen in 5-7 years where the fruit drops out in place of a savory perfume which will keep you addicted to drinking aged Northern Rhone reds. As these reds get a lot of age (15+ year) they take on a personality similar to top Burgundy, so if you do have patience forget about a few if you have a cold dark cellar please “lose” a few for a while. If drinking soon, simply decant the 2013 Silice for about an hour before serving in Burgundy or Bordeaux stems—I have experienced that it shows beautifully in both styles of glasses. To make this wine a real experience, I recommend pairing it with a delicious and simple dish of roasted lamb leg, flavored with rosemary and black olives.