2014 Saint-Péray Les Pins

I tasted Jean-Louis Gripa's 2013s for last year's northern Rhône article, and his '14s were not yet ready to taste by the time we posted this article, so I will review them in our next piece on the region. The 2014 Saint-Pérays and Saint-Joseph Blancs show very good energy and focus as well as depth, which shouldn't surprise those who follow this domain, as Jean-Louis has been noticeably stepping up his white wine game over the last decade.

Fabrice Gripa admitted that his winemaking philosophy "doesn't give the most easy and approachable wines, which is fine; plenty of other people do that." He intentionally shoots for an ageworthy style because he prefers "the complexity of an aged wine to an easiness of fruit" so he likes to bottle on the later side, "after the baby fruit has had a chance to recede." With that in mind, Gripa thinks that his '13s will be good for relatively early drinking and he feels pretty much the same way about his 2012s "because both years gave healthy crops, so the tannins aren't an issue for people who like to drink wine young." It should come as no surprise that Gripa is especially fond of the 2010 vintage, which he thinks made wines for the long haul; people who have started to open them, he said, "shouldn't be surprised that the wines aren't easy to understand now because it isn't that kind of year." I tasted through a number of barrels and tanks of 2014 red wines from a range of sites in Saint-Joseph and was impressed by the blend of vivacity and depth that was on display, but the final assemblage of Gripa's reds is still a ways off so I'll check in on them on my next visit. At the end of our tasting Gripa poured a few older wines blind to make the case about the ageworthiness of northern Rhône whites. The first, a 2002 Saint-Péray Les Figuiers, in no way resembled the product of a difficult year, and '02 was no doubt the weakest Rhône vintage in recent decades. It's a rich, smoky example of aged (mostly) Marsanne, with powerful honeyed character to its pit fruit compote and toasted nut flavors. It's fully mature and I'd drink it soon. The second bottle, a 1999 straight Saint-Péray, was suave, silky and seamless, with intense citrus and orchard fruit flavors and a trace of smokiness. It's definitely in its window of maturity but not in dire need of drinking just yet. Last, the 1993 Saint-Joseph Blanc Le Berceau was a stunner, with a core of vibrant minerality and shockingly fresh, focused orange and pear flavors that spread out on the finish. It drank like the youngest wine of the set, and at 21 years of age!