2015 Saint-Joseph

Jean Gonon said that the 2015 here is "a huge success" and formidably structured, thus "in need of a lot of patience," but he cautioned that "it's more about the vintage than the place now and probably will be for a long time." He’d prefer to drink the '16s "long before the '15s" because they will begin to show real Saint-Joseph character in a few years, like the '12s or '07s, to name vintages of similar freshness. He hastened to point out that he thinks the '16s will enjoy a longer aging curve than those two earlier vintages, a view that I definitely share.

What distinguishes 2015 from other hot vintages, Pierre Gonon told me, “is the fact that there was zero sunburn to the grapes so the tannins aren’t dry and the fruit didn’t go to superripe, which was the danger in ’09 and definitely in ’03.” That said, he went on, the stems ripened completely in 2015 “so we could use pretty much as high a percentage as we wished in fermentation because there wasn’t the risk of getting a green character or imparting too much stem tannins into the wines.” The Gonon brothers’ wines have quickly ascended into the top ranks of the northern Rhône, with prices and demand unfortunately following, but they still deliver very good value compared to most Hermitages and Côte-Rôties and even to Cornas bottlings of similar quality. The 2015 Les Iles Feray, in particular, is a fantastic deal; it’s made from massalle-selection vines that lie within the Saint-Joseph appellation, and while it’s vinified with 20% whole clusters rather than the 85% that were included in the ’15 Saint-Joseph, it provides a nice glimpse of the quality of the Gonons’ work for a gentle price.

While it has been frustrating to watch (and pay) steadily increasing prices for Pierre and Jean Gonon's wines, the fact is that they still deliver the best value for top-drawer wine in the northern Rhône. In fact, I would place this estate squarely on my "A" list of wine producers in the world, such is the consistent high quality of the wines for over a decade now.