2013 La Joie

This is an intriguing set of wines from Pierre Seillan and Vérité. Last year I wrote that the 2014s appeared to signal a slight move towards a more refined style. My most recent tasting a few weeks ago drove that point home even further. In my view, the 2014s are the best wines Pierre Seillan has made at Vérité because they are both intense but also pulsating with energy, whereas in the past, the emphasis was much more tilted towards power and ripeness. Seillan gives these wines 16-17 months in barrel followed by a few months in tank, which makes him among the last producers to bottle, but at the same time, also provides a great opportunity to taste these wines at various points in the early part of their lives. There is no question the Merlot-based La Muse is the wine that has the most ebbs and flows. Often incredibly expressive from barrel, La Muse often shuts down for a period of a few years after its bottling.

I tasted a wide range of bottled wines during my visit at Vérité, but it may have been the young 2014s from barrel that were the most informative of all. Pierre Seillan makes rich, voluptuous wines built on texture. Seillan favors long elevage, the last part of which is done in steel, which he believes helps integrate the new oak. In fact, Seillan was due to bottle his 2012s just after my visit, long after most Bordeaux blends were bottled in Napa Valley or Sonoma. Because these wines spend so much time in both barrel and tank before they are bottled, I generally am able to taste them a few times before they are released. Following that evolution can be quite illuminating. But what I came away with after tasting the 2014s is that these wines start with an extraordinary level of both purity and freshness that is remarkable. I am not so sure that all the time in the cellar is always beneficial, though. At times I think that with a little less work, the Vérité wines could be even better. The 2011s have turned out very nicely, although they are a departure from the hosue style as they are disinctly Old World, savory wines with more herbal notes than is common. A more typical sense of California opulence informs the 2012s, while the 2013s capture the essence of this great vintage in their exhilarating combination of ripeness and structure.