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Domaine des Pierres Séches, Saint-Joseph Rouge

Northern Rhône, France 2016 (750mL)
$36.00
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Domaine des Pierres Séches, Saint-Joseph Rouge

After honing his skills with world-famous Chapoutier, whose top wines run into the hundreds in no time at all, Sylvain Gauthier looked high up into the steeply terraced, picture-perfect vineyards of Saint-Joseph and established his own 5.5-acre micro-estate in 2007. At the behest of his importer, I met Sylvain in his microscopic cellar a decade later and tasted through the lineup. After smelling the first wine, I grinned—it was clear this guy was a rising star making serious wines.
Fast-forward to early April of this year: I’m at my desk, falling in love with today’s spectacular wine yet again, only this time the importer was talking numbers. Jaw, meet table. First, it’s sourced from three premier communes that are crowded around the southern portion of Saint-Joseph—this is where the greatest wines are made (Gonon, Gripa, Chave). Second, his mature vines share similar traits with the best wines of Northern Rhône when considering their elevation, steep pitch, and classic granite-based soil. Third, the wine itself has the concentration and polish of ripe Hermitage, the mineral savor of classic Côte-Rôtie, and the accessibility of young Saint-Joseph. Now add all that together and you’re left with a world-class Syrah priced in the triple digits, right? Nope! Not even close. At $36, this luxurious, mouth-coating 2016 is what you’ll be preaching to your friends about over the next two decades—assuming you purchased enough! 
Though he could very well get lost in the mass of young, avant-garde producers, Sylvain has the experience and talent to claim some of the spotlight. He studied winemaking in Beaune and worked at top wineries in both Hermitage and Saint-Péray before launching Domaine des Pierres Séches in 2007. The name is in homage to the old, hand-built stone terraces (pierres séches = dry stones) that are strung across many Saint-Joseph vineyards. He only maintains 5.5 acres of vines throughout Northern Rhône, all of which are farmed organically. Be it horse or hand, each row is plowed to aerate the soils, and all chemical inputs are eschewed.   

Today’s bottle is sourced from three of his precipitous hillside sites in the villages of Sarras, Arras-sur-Rhône, and Vion, all of which lie in the ‘original’ southern section of Saint-Joseph. After hand-harvesting grapes from these mature vines (up to 50 years old), 90% of them are de-stemmed before a long fermentation triggered by ambient yeasts. The resulting wine is matured in four-year-old French barrels for 12 months. It is bottled unfined with the smallest dose of sulfur.

Dense and polished, the wine pours an opaque, deep purple-ruby and emanates with irresistible high-toned perfumes. This Saint-Joseph is a blue-chip crash course in Northern Rhône Syrah character: There are lots of pungent violets, ripe black/blue fruits, and roasted meat notes on the nose and palate. This 2016 does not lack for ripeness and concentration, but it also shows lots of freshness and nerve. I wouldn’t hesitate to put it in a lineup with Saint-Josephs from the likes of Gonon and Chave, and that’s not something I say lightly. As it opens up—and it does need to open up—you’ll savor its medium-plus body that is bursting at the seams with dark, brambly berry fruit, cracked black pepper, licorice, and currants. It’s a classic Saint-Joseph expertly trained in tempered hedonism that finishes with finely crushed mineral grip and beautifully ripe fruit. Just make sure you allow it time to properly reveal itself: Allow it to glug-glug into a decanter and forget about it for a couple of hours in a cool place. Come dinnertime, with a tender pork tenderloin soaking in a blackberry-bacon sauce. It’s an argument-free marriage!
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Country
France
Region
Northern Rhône
Sub-Region
FranceSaint-Joseph
Soil
Granite & Sand
Farming
Organic
Blend
Syrah 100%
Alcohol
14.0
OAK
Neutral French Barrels
TEMP.
60-65
Glassware
Bordeaux Stems
Drinking
Now-2026+
Decanting
60+ Minutes
Pairing
Pork Tenderloin w/ Blackberry-Bacon Sauce

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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