2022 St Joseph, La Dardouille, Domaine Emmanuel Darnaud, Rhône

Domaine Emmanuel Darnaud

Enthusiastic Emmanuel produces polished, generous wines at his winery in La Roche de Glun, sitting on a peninsular which cleaves the Rhône river. His focus is displaying individual expressions of each parcel. They are picked and vinified separately before being placed in wooden casks, vats or larger demi-muids to continue their élevage. His Les Trois Chênes cuvée is made from only 20% of the whole crop of 25- to 60-year-old vines. His Au Fil de Temps cuvée is only made in certain years, from two plots in a single lieu-dit, Les Saviaux. Emmanuel is particularly fond of this parcel. Its deeper soils of galet stones and less clay lend a mineral element to the wine meaning “less volume but more tension”.

Additional to making impressive wines in Crozes-Hermitage, Emmanuel owns 1.7 hectares of 30- to 80-year-old, southeast facing vines on granitic soil in St Joseph ‒ the source of his stunning lieu-dit cuvée La Dardouille, meaning “to sun oneself”.

Saint-Joseph

Saint-Joseph is the second-largest appellation in the Northern Rhône with 50 growers producing wines from over 600 hectares of vineyards. Established in 1956, over 90 percent of the wine is red – made exclusively from the Syrah grape. The white wines, meanwhile, are typically a blend of Marsanne and Roussanne varieties. Its vineyards run due south on the west side below Condrieu, and are in six communes: Mauves, Tournon, St Jean-de-Muzols, Lemps, Vion and Glun.

The styles of wine in St Joseph tend to be much lighter than other red Appellations d'Origine Contrôlee and the quality can vary dramatically. The soils and climate differ, as it is a long, narrow AOC. There is no particular characteristic of the commune as some wines are produced near Côte-Rôtie, whilst others are near to Cornas.

The best St Josephs are still produced in the original heartland of the appellation between St Jean-de-Muzols and Mauves, where soils are predominately granitic with patches of limestone and schist. Typically, even the finest St Josephs are slightly lighter and faster-maturing than the wines of Hermitage, as Saint-Joseph's east-facing vineyards lose the sun up to two hours earlier in the crucial ripening season.

Recommended producers: Pierre Gaillard, Domaine Coursodon and Paul Jaboulet.

Syrah/Shiraz

A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.

It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.

South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.