M. Chapoutier, Saint-Joseph, Le Clos 2019

The 2019 Saint Joseph Le Clos comes from higher elevation granite soils and is just about always in the running for the Saint Joseph of the vintage. Reminding me of the Vieilles Vignes cuvée from the Gonon brothers, this dense purple-hued effort offers incredible blackberry and smoked currant-like fruits as well as notes of violets, crushed stone, incense, and leather. It's a rich, full-bodied, incredibly impressive red that's going to take 4-5 years to shed some baby fat and keep for two decades.

Opaque violet. Displays an array of ripe black and blue fruit and floral qualities on the deeply perfumed nose, along with savory suggestions of olive, pipe tobacco and smoked meat. In a distinctly wild style, offering bitter cherry, cassis, chewing tobacco and fruitcake flavors and smoky bacon and sweet chewing tobacco notes. Fans out slowly through an impressively long, gently chewy finish that features well-knit tannins and resonating cassis and spice notes.