Saint Cosme Saint-Joseph 2023
£29.95
The wine
Saint-Joseph runs for some fifty kilometres along the right bank of the Rhône, its Syrah planted on terraced granite that has to be worked by hand. Louis Barruol makes this under his negociant label, overseeing the vineyard work, harvest and vinification himself on sites he does not own, an approach that has let him master appellations well beyond his native Gigondas. Expect the savoury, peppery, iron-edged character that granite gives northern Rhône Syrah, in a wine built for the table rather than the cellar.
The producer
Château de Saint Cosme
View all Château de Saint Cosme winesChâteau de Saint Cosme sits in Gigondas and has been in the Barruol family for over five hundred years. Louis Barruol, the fourteenth generation, took over from his father in 1992 and is now among the most respected winemakers in the Rhône, referred to by his peers as the Genius of Gigondas.
The estate is exceptionally sited at the crosspoint of two geological faults, a rare piece of luck that gives it remarkable diversity of soil. Barruol uses it to make a series of parcellaire cuvees from individual old-vine plots: Le Claux, Hominis Fides and Le Poste each express a different corner of the appellation.
He has also built a negociant range, working closely with growers across the valley and overseeing vineyard management, harvest and vinification himself. It lets him work terroirs he does not own, from Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie in the north to Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the south, and the results are consistently among the best examples of their appellations.
