After reading in Matt Walls new Rhone book, this producer caught my eye.
Has anyone got any experience with Guy Farge’s Saint-Joseph and Cornas wines they want to share?
After reading in Matt Walls new Rhone book, this producer caught my eye.
Has anyone got any experience with Guy Farge’s Saint-Joseph and Cornas wines they want to share?
The Terroir de Granit St. Joe. Not a lot of overt fruit, has a nice spice note and it’s pretty tannic for St. Joe. Great job of Syrah.
Thanks. Does sound like quality wines over the full line-up.
I really like the wines of Guy Farge. They’re are never spectacularly good or particulalry flashy, so don’t expect to be blown away, but they offer rock-solid PQR, are very well balanced, with very good fruit and freshness. I think his St-Joseph Passion des Terrasses is worth the slightly higher price over the Terroir de Granit, yet both are eminently drinkable with hearty food (think bouchon Lyonnais). The Cornas is also very good. If you can, try the Condrieu, it’s one of the very few I like because the alcohol doesn’t shine through.
Thanks.
Well rock solid QPR is also very important .
Having good, but not expensive, wine you can just open for yourself and drink over a few days is very important to me.
Cornas is good, as is the white Saint Joseph ‘Vania’. The producer style was well described by Hans-Peter.
US based enthusiasts might check out K&L for this producer - they tend to have some pipeline and just sent out an offer last week. I picked up one of their 2015 Cornas a year or two ago, but squirreled it away, and have yet to try it.
Thanks for the pointer on that book though!
I wish KL shipped to NY.
I bought 2018 Clape instead for $115 ai.
Lasse, what does Matt Walls say about Guy Farge anyway?
According to him he creates wine’s of real finesse. He describes that the wines are made with whole bunches, native yeasts, low extraction and are aged in few years old demi-muids. Everything ticks my boxes here.
Bought a few Cornas, but i am also very interested in his Passion des Terrasses which is made from 100+ year old vines. According to Walls it is one of the best Saint-Joseph around.
Cool, thanks for sharing! Yes, Guy Farge’s winemaking is pretty traditional, and he himself is also very modest, talking very matter of factly about his wines without any attitude or grand gestures. If you needed to fill some cases to reach a certain number of bottles, also get some of the Terroir de Granit that IlkkaL had already mentioned, it’s really good fun to drink it young.
And in case you like the Passion de Terrasses, have you already had the opportunity to try Dom les Bruyères Les Croix Vieiles Vignes? It’s a Crozes-Hermitage from slightly younger vines (60 yrs) from a different soil, so the wines lacks the dark undertow of granite, but quite comparable in quality to the PdT (if a touch more modern fruit), at roughly the same price. I like it a lot, too.
Thanks for the suggestion. I have not tried it, but i will check it out.
The Saint-Joseph Passion de Terrasses cuvée is outstanding. Some of the vines are from 1899, apparently. It’s definitely one of the top Saint-Josephs.
I haven’t had the pleasure to try Farge’s Cornas or Condrieu.
Found a really good offer on the Passion de Terrasses, but was in doubt if i should buy them. So i checked it last night and the offer is gone
Think i will wait it out and see if it comes up again
Thanks WB hive mind. Just picked up a half a case of these to try. As a PSA, K&L has a great deal on most of the 2019 line-up, e.g. $28 for the Passion de Terrasses and $33 for the Harmonie Cornas.
Please report back with notes on the 19’s. Only had 17’s myself.
Finally got around to popping one of these. I can see why people are all-in on Guy Farge!
Posted from CellarTracker
They are really good wines that can often be found at decent prices
I own and continue to enjoy the '17 and '19 Terroir de Granit St. Joseph. The '17 has aged wonderfully and the '19 is very forward and satisfying at this time, but promises to improve over the next years. I loaded up on the '19 - a cellar defender that more than rises to the occasion!
I haven’t tasted much from Farge since this thread started other than his new super cuvée, the 2019 Cornas Reynard. I was not terribly impressed:
10/26/2022
My first time with this cuvée of old-vine (~1970s) Reynard. Day one: hulking big wine, purple-black, very deep dark nose with baked earth and lightly spiced kirschy fumes on the periphery. Very ripe, dense, meaty, black fruit and baked earth and a smooth cottony texture from the oak. Comes off like a well-made Saint-Joseph; not much trace of Cornas iron, granite, or sauvage character, and no real impression of its whole-cluster vinification; n.b. not at all like Allemand.
Day two: Still somewhat inscrutable but now some of the stemmy character is emerging, for the better. But it still lacks charm. Perhaps it’s just the solar vintage but I don’t think I will opt for this cuvée in the future.
I stashed away my other bottles to revisit in a few years, or longer.