2008 Saint-Joseph Blanc

Gangloff considers 2009 to be a classic, dream vintage for Condrieu. "That's because the wines are very rich but also have a core of minerality that gives them freshness and precision as well. They're full and powerful and dense but not fat and not sweet. It's rare to have both richness and elegance but in '09 it happened. You can drink the wines now, for the fruit, but they'll also age well on their minerality." Gangloff feels pretty much the same way about the red wines but suspects that they'll be at their best in middle age, at about age seven or so, "because the vintage is more about fruit than structure. The wines aren't soft, by any means, but their appeal seems to be more about immediate fruit." There will only be one Cote-Rotie from 2008 here as Gangloff sold off some of his younger-vine fruit and blended what would normally be La Sereine Noire with the best juice normally designated for La Barbarine.

Overall production in 2008 was down 50% "because of the severe and painful selection I had to do," Yves Gangloff told me. "The red wines will be ready to drink when they come out and I wouldn't risk holding them for very long." There will only be one Cote-Rotie bottling here from that vintage, by the way. Gangloff calls 2007 "a classic vintage for Cote-Rotie. The wines are drinkable now and show all the qualities you're supposed to get: fruit, spice, flowers and everything in balance." Gangloff has a new 2.5-hectare vineyard in Saint-Joseph and the first release will be the 2007. Right now there's a hectare of syrah and half a hectare of marsanne, and he's in the process of planting the remaining land to marsanne rather than syrah "despite the fact that red Saint-Joseph is much easier to sell than white," because he loves great marsanne. "When it's great, it's my favorite wine of the Rhone, and white Hermitage can be my favorite wine in the world, so I want to see what I can do with it. It's been a dream of mine for a long time."