Vieilles Vignes St. Joseph Marsanne Roussanne Blend

A terrific vintage for this wine. Nose has big time gras, yellow fruits, striking minerality and wet stones. Lovely and very expressive. Palate is opulent and rich but also fresh and has lovely acidity if not quite like the 16 or 19. Needs air as this is a bit more backwards than normal. Might be closing. I’ll be back. Really pure with great balance. Slowly opening. Always a killer wine.

@Josh Morgenthau inspired me to open one of these and wanted to check in on one with age. Glad I did. Preposterous nose of huge granite, lemon, some tropical fruits and exotic flowers. Amazing lime and lemon drop. Focused and round nose with such lovely granitic precision. Bit of honey and tree bark. Palate is rich and energetic with wonderful edgy and granite driven Marsanne minerality. Excellent acid and freshness and uncommon depth. Great purity. What grip. Best white wine value in all of the N. Rhone.

The latest and the greatest from Mikael Desestret. Gorgeous nose. Spices, wax, marzipan, superb granite minerality. Elite. So layered. Also smokey and airy. Palate is ripe and generous with awesome purity and balance. Super juicy and structured. Very very pure. Really wide and deep. Awesome finish. Another brilliant version. The finish is so long. What a great wine and value play.

Showing some secondary finally! Woo hoo. Nose has honey, some nuts, huge granite, spice, some plantains, other yellow fruits. Perfumed. This has gotten so so good. Elegant and so so nimble. Beautiful balance, complexity and purity. Juicy and long. Really elegant. Wow.

Another great vintage for this wine. Brilliant whites in St. Joseph in 2018. Nose is super granitic with yellow fruits, superbly refined and defined. Palate is ripe and dense with superb finesse, yellow fruits and old vine sap. Juicy with great mineral freshness and clarity. Long finish. Always such a great wine.

A very well made wine, but on the personal pleasure scale it’s not a favorite. I’m not sure why but it’s becoming increasingly clear to me I’m not a Marsanne guy. The nose has that hard marzipan, minerally nose that Marsanne sports. Round texture contrasts with the whack of bitterish minerals in the mouth. Not a lot on the back end. I know others will enjoy this more than I did, so this rating is not pleasure-based but technical based.

One of the best white Rhone values ever. This is so brilliant. Complex nose. Yellow fruits, smoke, spice, floral, mineral, wafting. Just a huge aromatic spectrum. Palate is rich and elegant with great balance and freshness. Sappy and mineral with persistence. Spicey, pepper finish. Lush but energetic from the good acid and intense minerality.

I adore this wine. So good. Nose of yellow fruits loads of minerals and such impressive precision. Granite up the wazoo. Palate is rich like 17 can be but with dazzling acidity and precision. Squeegee of fruit with huge concentration. Great structure and density. Needs age but still great now.

Been a minute since I’ve had the 2014. Nose is yellow fruited with intense Marsanne minerality. Some flowers and spice as well. Palate is super precise and elegant with lovely density and wonderful purity. Intense minerality and terrific mouthfeel. Almost like icing on a cake.

Been a minute since I’ve had the 2015. Big, mineral and tropical nose. Terrific fruit. Palate is exquisite as always. Fresh, dense and pure. Lovely balance and texture with yellow fruits and an excessively mineral finish that is so persistent. Such a great wine.