2015 M. Chapoutier St. Joseph Le Clos

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 91 points

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  4/28/2024 - hargy Likes this wine: 89 Points

  this was very closed, even on the second day - rated as it is today - leave for many years

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  1/19/2023 - forceberry wrote: 93 Points

  A single-vineyard Syrah from a biodynamically farmed vineyard at the heart of Saint-Joseph. Fermented spontaneously and macerated for 5 weeks in 3000-liter concrete tanks. Aged for approx. 20 months in French oak barriques (25% new). 14% alcohol. Tasted half-blind in a tasting of ten 2015 Saint-Joseph wines.
  
  Deep, luminous and quite opaque black cherry color. The nose feels dry and smoky - even slightly reductive - with quite intense and varietally correct aromas of floral violet tones, almost charred bacon, some gunpowder smoke notes of reduction, a little bit of ripe dark berry, light pungent notes of burnt hair, a hint of blueberry juice and a touch of woody spice. The wine feels ripe, juicy and focused on the palate with a medium body and very intense flavors of concentrated blackberry and fresh dark plum tones, some licorice nuances, a little bit of peppery spice, light reductive nuances of gunpowder smoke, a hint of meaty umami and a touch of gravelly minerality. The wine retains great sense of freshness and structure, thanks to the high acidity and firm, moderately grippy tannins. The finish is long, juicy and rather grippy with an intense aftertaste of ripe blackberry, some darker-toned plummy fruit, a little bit of gunpowder smoke, light gamey meaty tones, a floral hint of violets and a touch of licorice root.
  
  A very sophisticated, nuanced and quite dead-serious Saint-Joseph with a lot of stuffing and structure. I was surprised to learn the wine was a Chapoutier when the labels were revealed, because I was expecting a softer and more oaky wine (and, truth be told, we had also a 2015 Chapoutier Les Granits, which turned out to be exactly like that). As opposed to Chapoutier's more polished style with more oak impact, the oak aromatics seemed surprisingly downtoned here - even after good aeration - and the emphasis was on the vibrant, still surprisingly youthful Syrah fruit. Even though the wine showed some obvious ripeness and the alcohol clocked in at 14%, the wine still showed good sense of finesse and freshness. A very positive surprise in all aspects - except for the price: even if this was one of my favorite wines in this tasting, I still think this is by no means worth its price at 146€. The wine drinks wonderfully now and will only improve and get better over the next 5-10 years, but I still wouldn't buy the wine even at half the price. There is so much good St. Joe to go around for just 25-40€ that the price of this wine just doesn't make any sense. In our tasting the wine received three point from the ten participants, making it finish on shared third place.

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  9/20/2022 - havana4 🍾🍇 Likes this wine: 91 Points

  A bold and full bodied syrah With refreshing acidity and gripping but silky tannic structure. On the nose is a treat with stewed meats and mushrooms. A savory one for sure. Palate is fried figs and plum but needs to open a bit bit for the fruit to shine. May be in a slightly closed down phase as i decanted over 3 hours and drank along the way, and fruit was still a bit underbalanced.

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  6/1/2022 - GraffCellar Likes this wine: 89 Points

  Tannins a bit grippy and green but evolving nicely

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