Domaine de Boisseyt Saint-Joseph Les Garipelées Rouge 2022

This red Saint-Joseph from Domaine de Boisseyt blends several plots located in Chavanay, in the north of the appellation. At Les Eguets, 30-year-old Syrah grows on muscovite granite, a hard soil with large crystals; at Les Vessettes and La Madonne, 40-year-old Syrah takes root in heavily decomposed gneiss, softer and very free-draining. Together they cover 1.6 hectares.

Each plot is vinified separately, then the lots are blended in tank before bottling. Alcoholic fermentation is carried out by native yeasts. The wine is then aged for 9 months in barrels that have held two or three wines, a choice that refines the structure while preserving the radiance of the fruit and the imprint of the granite terroir.

This wine reveals notes of blueberry, blackberry, wild strawberry, blackcurrant, violet, black pepper, cocoa and roasted coffee. The fruit, ripe yet incisive, opens onto fresh aromas of small woodland berries. On the mid-palate, the substance broadens towards a powerful, voluptuous body, carried by supple, silky tannins, before a roasted finish.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.