2006 Ferraton Père & Fils St. Joseph Blanc La Source

RJonWine.com

• By Richard Jennings
  11/6/2010, (See more on RJonWine.com...) 90 points

  (Ferraton Père & Fils St. Joseph Blanc La Source) Light medium yellow color; intriguing, sage honey, apricot nose; maturing, apple, peach, honeyed palate; medium-plus finish 90+ pts.

Garagiste

• By Jon Rimmerman
  7/17/2008, (See more on Garagiste...)

  (La Source St. Joseph Blanc FERRATON) Cote Rotie Dear Friends, What's one of the toughest examples of Cote Rotie to obtain right now? La Landonne? Rostaing's Cote Blonde? No, it's this wine - the flagship that Michel Chapoutier hopes will put Ferraton on the map like his 1991 Cote Rotie Mordoree did for the resurgence at his namesake winery. I've been trying since last summer to find a few cases of this as my favorite wine shop owner in Lyon kept telling me "you need to get this now, before the reviews and before it's $200-300" - I finally found a parcel last month and it's just arrived. Michel Chapoutier learned from his mistakes and successes at his own winery and he wasn't going to take any chances at Ferraton - the goal has been the very top or nothing, equal to or surpassing his own wines or of another similar resuscitation story - Delas-Freres. Michel changed the farming to organic and biodynamic, cut out the inferior parcels and slashed anything to do with the somewhat tired image of Ferraton. He wanted a clean slate (as he did when his father handed him the Chapoutier reigns) and the initial results already place this set of wines in a class reserved for very few. In the end, names are for labels - it's the wine in the bottle that counts and this one is magic. You can believe the hype on the 2005 Eglantine - not only is it almost impossible to get but the sheer quality of this mineral-drenched, bacon-laced and wildly floral scented Syrah is something to behold. They rarely taste anyone on it at the winery (even if you ask) but I would expect eye-popping praise on this late release 2005 from the powers that be - 10 cases for the entire US market (10 cases? It's almost silly): 2005 Ferraton Cote Rotie L'Eglantine EXTREMELY LIMITED ...if the Cote Rotie is too much for your budget (or if you are looking for more moderately priced examples), try this wine - also very difficult to find and quite a surprise - I don't think you will see this in the US: 2006 Ferraton Cotes du Rhone Villages Plan de Dieu EXTREMELY LIMITED ...oh yeah, we also have a few bottles of this acutely interesting white St. Joseph - only a few dozen cases for the entire country so our allocation is in bottles: 2006 Ferraton St. Joseph "La Source" Blanc EXTREMELY LIMITED Thank you, Jon Rimmerman Garagiste Seattle, WA Rhone6820 Rhone6830 Rhone6840