Deep purple black. On the nose, black fruits, blackcurrants and bilberry, touch of olive. Harmonious and polished - lovely oak/fruit balance. Polished. Exhilarating bilberry and blackcurrant fruit. Juicy and exciting. Now-2015

Product Code: MOP508

Jean-Pierre Monier is a bio-dynamic producer, having farmed organically since the early 1980s, and converted to bio-dynamism in 1997 - no latecomer adopting the latest fashion! He first bottled his own wines in 2001. He used to own a mere 5 hectares of south to south-east facing vines just north of St. Desirat on very steep, granitic vineyards, but this has been supplemented by taking on Philippe Perreol’s land too, hence the new name of the domaine.

M. Monier crops very low (25-30 hectolitres a hectare) and picks late: he likes, as he says “une legère surmaturité”. Both reds are 100% Syrah, destemmed after 12 hours fermentation, given a temperature controlled fermentation and both spend one year in barrique, about 1/3 new, the rest two to three years old, before being bottled without any filtration at all. The standard Saint Joseph comes from five plots, all close to the domaine. The low-yielding production of Terre Blanche (about 30% new oak) derives from limestone/clay parcels on the steeply pitched vineyards near the cellar.

Jean-Pierre thinks his reds are typified by cassis, myrtille & cherry and are very “confits”, charmingly ripe. His wines are truly harmonious (is this the biodynamics?) and the fact that M. Monier sells them to no less than three triple Michelin-starred Parisian restaurants speaks volumes both for their class, and the supple suavity which makes them hugely enjoyable soon after the vintage.

This year we have shipped some of his Vin de Pays Marsanne, a really fascinating barrel-aged wine which belies its humble status: and at last we have a decent allocation of his wonderful Viognier. If you used to buy Condrieu but can’t bring yourself to spend that much then buy this instead: barrel-fermented in 3-4 year old 300 litre barrels, it’s wonderfully opulent and exotic.