2016 Paul Jaboulet Aine Le Grand Pompee Saint Joseph 750 ml

Look up at Hermitage Hill, one of the most iconic sites in the world of wine, where the most revered producers all have their family names displayed: Chapoutier. Guigal. And at the very top, Paul Jaboulet Aîné. Last year on our trip to the Northern Rhône, we were honored to visit Jaboulet, and today we’re excited to one spoil from our visit: Jaboulet’s pure, majestic, and age-worthy Saint-Joseph Syrah.

Paul Jaboulet Aîné is one of the Rhône Valley’s most iconic domaines, so there’s no Syrah we’d rather showcase for our Old World-focused wine club than his gorgeous, savory Le Grand Pompée. It’s one of our personal favorites because the powerfully spicy, tightly wound Saint-Joseph is a food pairing phenom that shines with anything off the grill (double-cut pork chops, anyone?) and French classics like Salade Lyonnaise.

In this glass, this deep purple wine embodies everything we love about Syrah: Savory white pepper, garrigue, rosemary, and flint aromas march forth in lockstep with ripe raspberry, wild plum, and red currant before the bold flavors collide with leather, smoke, and chewy tannins on the palate.

Paul Jaboulet Âiné has ruled Hermitage Hill for two centuries, and their Hermitage La Chapelle stands as one of the most revered wines of France. The critically acclaimed Jaboulet Aîné team applies the same attention and terroir mastery to their Saint-Joseph as they do to their $$$ bottles, which results in a powerful, inky Syrah beautifully suited to drinking right now. Simply put, this red epitomizes Old World Syrah with 100-point pedigree at an every-night price.

Just putting your nose in this glass, it's easy to imagine the rustic, rock-strewn, vertiginous slopes of the right bank of the Rhône, where the vineyards for this Saint-Joseph lie. Dotted with wild herbs and assaulted nearly constantly by the gale-force Mistral winds, this hard-scrabble region is instantly recognizable in the tight, sinewy body of this wine, with its spice- and mineral-driven finish. 

Jaboulet is a mixture of the ancient and the modern: Just over a decade ago, the domaine was purchased by the Frey family (owners of Champagne Ayala and Bordeaux Third Growth La Lagune, and partners in Billecart-Salmon), who have labored meticulously to elevate the estate. They’ve modernized the winemaking and focused on vineyard management, converting some of the domaine’s most famed parcels to organic viticulture.  

After our trip to Jaboulet’s iconic vineyards and sterling winemaking facilities, we tasted at Le Vineum, Jaboulet’s tiny wine bar in Tain l’Hermitage. The iconic reds from Hermitage Hill and Saint-Joseph were spectacular, of course, but we couldn’t help thinking ahead… to pulling them out of the cellar over the next few years and reveling in the glory that only bottle age can draw out of Northern Rhône Syrah. 

We hope you’ll enjoy this opportunity to experience that for yourself.