This offer marks our first in many months from the Northern Rhône’s arch-hedonist.
Last year's Gonon seminar confirmed how strongly the St.-Joseph leapfrogs terroir in pursuit of its own purplish and glossy-textured programme, the center of the wine being an exuberance that refuses reducing to place. Even a larger ‘terroir plus farming’ formula does not carry us far enough. There are plenty of other good farmers around, none of whom make this.
As with most of the wine world’s true originals Gonon's are in the end stylistic (i.e. human, aesthetic) achievements: sweet blueberry and soft cassis; more violets than olives though helpings of each; the spherical mid-palate and slippery-glossy finish; proximity to a nearly overwhelming exuberance. 'Uniqueness' remains a more difficult achievement than wide use suggests, though here it is merely accurate.
Cheers,
Jason
