Critics reviews
Jamie Goode, wineanorak.com, 27 Sept 2013
About this WINE
Domaine Pichon
Christophe and Isabelle Pichon, apart from the small matter of bringing up six children, also farm 10 hectares spread over the wine appellations of Côte Rôtie, Condrieu and St Joseph.
Nearly 4 hectares of this are in Condrieu, to the South of the appellation, in the commune of Chavanay. Condrieu, with its distinctive granitic terraced vineyards, is still perceived as the source of the best Viognier wines in the world, wines of incredible richness and a texture which afford the reviewer/taster little alternative but to use vocabulary from the more sensuous and decadent end of the spectrum!
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.
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Description
St Joseph is the most fashionable appellation in the Northern Rhône and the Pichons have really excelled in this outstanding year. Made from 70-year-old Syrah vines, farmed at high density on steep slopes, the 2009 is classic St Joseph with a fresh linear acidity and lovely pure red berried fruit on the attack with deeper, richer notes and hints of wood smoke at the back.
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