Winemaker Notes
Ruby color. Mature black berry nose and full of fruit. A well balanced wine with fine tannins, which can easily be aged for a few years in cellar.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Showing the least amount of oak in Coursodon's lineup, the 2022 Saint Joseph Silice offers blackberries, peppery herbs, damp earth, and sappy flowers, all with remarkable purity and complexity. All Syrah, destemmed and aged 12 months in barrel, this cooler-fruited effort is terrific.
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James Suckling
A well-balanced, textured and precise Saint-Joseph showing notes of dark cherries, crushed raspberries, roasted meat and some peppercorns on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with fine tannins. Bright center-palate, pure and crunchy, with juicy dark cherry character. Elegant, yet it has intensity and vitality with a precise, vivid finish and excellent length.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Crafted from vines planted on schist and granite soils, the 2022 Saint-Joseph Silice is excellent. Evoking aromas of dark cherries, violets and plums mingled with spices, it's medium to full-bodied, ample and layered, rich and textural with good depth at the core, framed by ripe, velvety tannins, concluding with a long, ethereal and fruity finish. This is a great effort.
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Decanter
Enjoyably soft and velvety style, with good acidity and discreet tannins. Very well balanced, easy to drink, but not basic – has a granitic, chiselled texture. Classic in style, matured in barriques and demi-muids for 12 months.
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Wine Spectator
An alluring version, offering black licorice and macerated plum notes filigreed with baking spices, mulberry and mesquite smoke on a round, broad palate. Beautifully aromatic, with lavender and dried herbs wafting through, plus a flattering, well-integrated brush of vanilla. Anchored by firming iron minerality on the focused finish. Drink now through 2032. 750 cases made, 150 cases imported.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Spanning the longest stretch of river in the northern Rhône—from Condrieu in the north, to Cornas in the south—the heart of St.-Joseph lies directly across the Rhône River from Hermitage. While its soils are basically the same as Hermitage: granite, supplemented by sand and gravel, its east facing slope receives less sunlight than Hermitage, which causes less overall berry ripening on its Syrah vines. However, some of the best of them can rival any fine expression of Hermitage, Cote-Rotie or Cornas with concentrated black fruits, dark spices, crushed rock and violets. A general advantage of the region is that its Syrahs typically don’t need as much time in the bottle compared to a Cote-Rotie or Hermitage and are much easier on the bank account!
A textbook St.-Joseph red is firm with a core of minerality that is enhanced by savory and peppery qualities. Aromas and flavors of smoke, olives, herbs, and violets are common; its wines are dense in red and black fruit.
St.-Joseph is also a source of fine northern Rhône white wine. Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne grow well here and can be blended or made into single varietal wines. St.-Joseph whites are full and silky with citrus, pear and pineapple flavors and a rich bouquet reminiscent of honeysuckle, toasted nuts, spice and caramel.