TN: 2020 Gonon Saint-Joseph

I received my case a month or so ago, and tonight, an intolerably hot evening in Beaune, seemed like the right moment to try one. With a côte de boeuf grilling over the coals as I write this, it won’t be a long tasting note, but the wine is predictably brilliant. The 2020 isn’t as extravagantly floral and perfumed as the 2019, but it is an immensely characterful, satisfying wine nonetheless. Dark fruit tones mingle with notions of black olive, cracked pepper, violets, spices and carnal nuances, without any distracting makeup, in a bouquet that all too few Rhône producers manage to deliver. Deep, layered and supple, the wine’s lively animating acids and rich, powdery tannins cut though the sweetness of fruit that you’d expect in a sunny vintage to arrive at excellent balance.

I feel during intolerably hot weather the first thing I’d reach for wouldn’t be northern rhone Syrah.

Thanks for the note! I bought a couple of bottles to drink with my son as it’s his birth year I reckon it will go the distance pretty comfortably?

Well, I initially opened a Savoie red at 11.5%, but it was full of brett and as the charcoal smoke percolated through the courtyard and I went down to the cellar to find its replacement and saw the case of Gonon, well…

Thanks so much for the note William
The 2010 is in an alluring mode right now. Facinating wine. But will keep improving for sure

I was thinking the very same thing! But, of course, William makes it sound like the perfect wine nonetheless

Awesome, thanks for posting this note! I was able to score the 2020 St Joe and the Iles Feray, but won’t take delivery until weathers cools, say in October. Love trying one when they arrive! Gonon can do no wrong.

PS. Summer is irrelevant. Keep the AC on 69!

I figured you’d open one of your Chenins!

I miss the days of opening Gonon on release as a barbecue wine. It’s great wine but usually very delicious and not something I used to take too seriously.

William,
Can you elaborate on red Savoie wines please? I am due to move there very soon and will experiment their wines but have no knowledge…

Ardoisieres?

Keep it in a cold cellar and it will be fine! It doesn’t appear to have as much gas in the tank for the long haul as e.g. 2010 or 2015, but these wines are generally pretty long-lived. It is also my son’s birth year so your question reminds me that I should try to hide a few bottles at the back of a bin.

There are some very attractive things being done - I just got unlucky tonight!

Are you not going to tell us your scores?

I saw that hunk of beef and asparagus on IG and was wondering which of the recent wines you opened for that meal. Things clicked when I saw this post.

This comment really struck me, as I totally agree. I’ve had a bunch of Northern Rhone recently and have been surprised that even some producers reputed to be very traditional don’t totally deliver this profile. Some young Levets recently tasted, while very classical wines, didn’t really have these aromatics on display (hoping they just need age to bring that out), also a young Barge Cote Rotie, again lovely wine, but didn’t really have these markers. Yet once in a while you find something, sometimes even cheaper like a Francois Villard IGP Syrah I had recently that really had much of what I’d expect to be typical for Northern Rhone.

What vintages are you talking about? Many of these wines do need time to showcase those aromatics that we love, but from my perspective, the more recent ripe vintages do not currently show the aromatics as do the more frangrant, open vintages. Compare the ripe vintages of 2015 and 2018 to vintages like 2011 and 2014. Often these vintages are overlooked with the hype of the “big” vintages, but yet for many palates on this Board, I suspect that the less-hyped vintages might actually be better buys all around. For example, the 2014 Juge for current drinking blows away the 2015 and 2013. Maybe in 15 years or more things flip, but damn am I charmed by 2014. Same thing about 2011 Gonon and 2011 Levet.

Well, with William throwing down “carnal nuances” - which would be the center of my Latino bingo card - I’m 95+ points on this without even trying it!

Yeah it was 102 here in Dallas last night so it was gin and tonic, and then cold champagne…but that said, it’s steaks and old napa cabs with my dad on Tuesday when it will also be 100+ degrees at 6:00.

I really do not understand these comments in this modern era. Don’t y’all have AC? If I went by the heat rule, I’d be drinking white wine 9 mos out of the year, and that ain’t happening!