M. Chapoutier : Les Granits 2022

This wine has power and intensity teamed with freshness and sufficient acidity, backed up with lovely salty extract. Aromatically it's quite reductive and closed, but it’s very promising and opens up with air, and should be more giving by 2026. It has very good balance for a hot vintage, and fairly long length, such a good wine. The grapes are grown on steep granite slopes in Tournon, and half fermented in vat, the other half in demi-muids.

Cask sample. Distinctly reduced in the glass, yet underneath there is a crystalline note as well. There is structure here and a dense core of ripe stone fruit alongside an elegant, nervy frame that will allow this to age nicely. The reduction is well controlled and adds complexity both aromatically and organoleptically. (AC)

The 2022 Saint-Joseph Blanc Les Granits stands out from the crowd. Perfumed and intense, it emerges with alluring chamomile, flintstone, yellow apple, jasmine, cedar and pear aromas. Touching the medium-bodied palate with lifting energy, the 2022 superbly marries its elevated flavor concentration with bright acidity. This checks out with brilliant freshness on the long finish.

You can put the 2022 Saint Joseph Les Granits Blanc in the top handful of whites in the appellation, and it would do just fine in a lineup of great Hermitage for that matter. Its medium-gold hue is followed by riveting notes of honeyed flowers, white peach, crushed stone, and orange marmalade. It's medium to full-bodied, has a fresh, focused, vibrant mouthfeel, that brighter acidity that's common in many of Chapoutier's 2022s, and a great finish. Give bottles 2-3 years and enjoy over the following decade.

There’s impressive salty concentration to this expansive, well-balanced white, which holds its weight well. Persimmon, verbena and golden apple are woven with dried herbs, heather and salty, bitter oyster shell minerality. Shows flattering toasty oak and smoke notes but is not overdone. Warm and sunny, like the vintage, with good energy throughout. Excellent. Drink now through 2030. 15 cases imported.