2017 Saint-Joseph Poivre et Sel

François Villard's approach to winemaking has steadily evolved over the years, from a reliance on lots of ripe fruit and abundant new oak (with wines that showed the effect, often to the extreme) to the elegant but still deeply flavored wines that he's producing today. Villard has moved to using more whole clusters, up to 100% in many instances now, and the new oak presence has been dialed back across the board, in some cases significantly. Villard said that he’s extremely happy with the character of the 2018 vintage because “it can deliver a lot of things to different people. There’s a lot of fruit but there’s also freshness, and the tannins aren’t so strong that you’re forced to hold them – although you could, for at least 10 years.”

I have a hard time thinking of a northern Rhône producer whose wine has evolved as dramatically and positively over the last two decades than those of François Villard. Upon launching his domaine in 1989, Villard quickly built a reputation for producing assertively perfumed and flavored, opulent, even flamboyant wines, often with plenty of new oak influence, as was the fashion in the region at the time. But over the years his style evolved, especially during the last decade. Today his wines, which are often made with a significant amount of whole clusters and almost always a minimal use of new oak, are distinctly in the elegant camp of northern Rhône wines. That’s not to say that his wines are restrained, a point that he readily acknowledges. “You can get intensity of flavor without weight, too much ripeness and too much oak,” he told me. “It isn’t as easy and it takes a lot of work in farming, selection and attention in the cellar but it’s worth it. Plus, the wines age better when they are balanced and not monsters.” The 2017s are quite forward. Villard suggests that they should mostly be drunk before their 2016 and definitely their 2015 siblings.