2020 E. Guigal Saint-Joseph Blanc 750 ml

Saint-Joseph offers some of the top values in the Northern Rhône. Its best vineyards are hills that remind us of Hermitage—the most famous and expensive terroir in the Rhône—on a smaller scale. Guigal Saint-Joseph Blanc is 95% Marsanne, the dominant white grape of Hermitage, and hails mainly from two of the most legendary estates in the area. 

Their most famous Saint-Joseph property was formerly held by Jean-Louis Grippat, who sold his vineyards to the Guigals when he retired. His wines were known as the “Rolls Royce of Saint-Joseph,” and today they’re some of the most coveted, collectible bottles from the 80s and 90s in France.

The legend goes that the plots came in an all-or-nothing deal for Grippat’s Hermitage vineyards. At first, it looked like a dealbreaker for the Guigals—while they coveted the Hermitage sites, they were far from sold on Saint-Joseph. But when Marcel and Philippe Guigal made the 45-minute drive down RN7 to tell M. Grippat their decision, he didn’t give them a chance to sit down. Instead, he drove them straight to the Saint-Joseph site. The Guigals were stunned. They had never seen a vineyard of that quality in Saint-Joseph. Convinced, they signed the deal on the spot.

To fruit from that site, the Guigals add grapes from the former Vallouit estate—another granite-soiled star in the heart of the appellation—along with ones purchased from select growers. It’s a recipe for greatness, and the resulting wine aged in a mixture of oak barrels and stainless steel tanks, a regimen that balanced the Rhône’s signature weight and richness without overwhelming the wine with oak.