Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet (Herve Souhaut) St. Joseph Clos des Cessieux 2024

Clos des Cessieux carries a lovely story of patience behind it. The parcel belongs to the family of Hervé Souhaut's partner, Béatrice — her grandfather, who owns all the surrounding vines, had rented this particular plot out on a 25-year lease decades before he had any idea Hervé would one day want to make wine from it. It wasn't until 2013, when the lease finally expired, that Hervé got the vines back — a mix of old clonal-selection plantings from that original lease alongside some massale-selected vines, high in elevation within Saint-Joseph, on the same rocky granite terroir that defines the whole Romaneaux-Destezet estate just across the Rhône from the storied hills of Hermitage. True to Souhaut's whole philosophy, the fruit undergoes whole-cluster fermentation at low temperatures in wooden vats, relying entirely on indigenous yeasts, before ageing around twelve months on fine lees in neutral barrels — spontaneous, barely-touched winemaking that lets the site speak for itself.

The result is widely considered his most exuberant, even "hedonistic" wine — everything Syrah traditionally represents in this corner of the Northern Rhône (power, depth, structure) rendered instead with crystalline finesse. Expect dark red fruit, rose and violet, bacon fat, and a subtle peppery spice, with the fruit and floral lift given centre stage over raw power; the palate carries silky tannins, fresh acidity, and real length, with a granite-driven mineral backbone running throughout. It's delicious young, yet carries enough structure to age gracefully over the following decade