2016 Saint-Joseph

Alexis Gerin told me that even though the 2016s show quite well already and will likely never truly close down, “it’s a mistake to call them light or easy wines. They have excellent concentration, they just aren’t heavy or ripe, which some people think is needed for aging.” The property now includes just over 12 hectares of vines in some of Côte-Rôtie’s most prized sites. These 2016s are an excellent example of where this domaine, has been heading over the last decade. In the 2000s and before, the wines often wore their oak on their sleeve and demanded plenty of cellar time for it to integrate with the fruit. Now, the style places greater emphasis on energy and precision, even if plenty of new, large-format barrels are still in play. I have been especially impressed by the (relative) newcomer to the Gerin cellar, the Côte-Rôtie La Viallière, of which the domaine now owns 1.75 hectares. In my opinion it’s now one of the best examples made from this famed vineyard in the Côte-Brune. While it may lack the sheer force of the Grandes Places and La Landonne bottlings, it more than compensates with its detail and vibrancy.

“Preserving the freshness of the vintage” was a big priority in 2016, Alexis Gerin told me, “so bottling will be a little earlier than usual, definitely earlier than 2015, to let the wines have a longer elévage to allow the tannins to relax.” The 2016s are, no question, extremely fresh and fruit-driven, which has long been the style at this 12-hectare (10 in Côte-Rôtie and two in Condrieu) domaine. Gerin consistently produces some of the appellation’s most user-friendly, energetic and fruit-driven wines, that can show pronounced oak character when they’re young (the top single-vineyard wines are usually raised in 100% new barrels) but time has proven kind to the wines so oak-phobes are advised to keep their hands off their bottles, even in more elegant vintages like 2016.