FRANCOIS VILLARD SAINT JOSEPH AOC MAIRLANT ROUGE SYRAH 750ML @ Windermere [1049802]

François’s flagship and original Syrah, a text-book Saint-Joseph and a classic reference for the appellation. This 100% whole-cluster wine wears all the minerality and tension of great Saint-Joseph with a broad smile. The cuvée comes vineyards in the communes of Ardoix, Chavanay, and Saint-Pierre-de-Boeuf. These latter two are the northernmost in the appellation and taste like it, as this is the part of Saint-Joseph where the finest examples grow, the harder and darker decomposed granites providing the most nervy, floral, peppery, and violet-laced; structured and age-worthy examples the appellation has to offer. The wine is rounded out with some fruit from his vineyards in Ardoix, situated in the middle stretch of Saint-Joseph where some gneiss and schist come into the mix, creating still-tensile expressions but with an earlier-opening style of ripe dark fruit. This cuvée includes François’s original Mairlant vineyards, his first Syrah plantings, nearest to the cellars in Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône. These and the vines of Poncins are those he knows most intimately. These vines average 33 years of age and face southeast at a density of 5,000-8,000 vines per hectare on decomposed granite. 2022 had yields of 42hl/ha. 100% whole cluster, 14 days of maceration in open wood vats and stainless, then 18 months in oak barrels. 13.5%. 21,000 bottles made. Cellaring potential: 20 years.