Gonon produces St. Joseph in the very heart of the AOC. The “original” AOC, when first set up, consisted only of a handful of villages at its (present) southern end, alongside Cornas, to its south.... Read More
Gonon produces St. Joseph in the very heart of the AOC. The “original” AOC, when first set up, consisted only of a handful of villages at its (present) southern end, alongside Cornas, to its south. In later years, flatter lands to the north were added, and in fact most of the St. Joseph produced today is grown in those lesser sites. And it is not as good.
Gonon’s particular village is Mauves, one of the star villages with it steep, solid granite vineyard sites. Mauves is not a well-known name today, as the branding provided by the AOC has taken over, but this was historically recognized as one of France’s great sources of wine, earning references like Victor Hugo’s in Les Miserables.
Gonon, in short, possesses terroir that is equal to the greatest sites of Hermitage or Cote Rotie. They (the original Pierre Gonon left his winery to his two sons) farm the vines exclusively by hand (machines would never work on those steep slopes) and are certified organic. They work exclusively in a traditional manner, but with a focus on precision and purity. Their cellarwork would not look unfamiliar to anyone who has visited Jean-Louis Chave, for instance.
Gonon isn't just a wine to compare to Chave and the other GOATs. Gonon is one of the GOATs. But ultimately there's nothing we can say here that will fully communicate the whys or hows of it. When a producer is truly great, there's only so much you can say.
What you can do instead is drink the wines and recognize the magic. Ask a winemaker, and they will tell you that it isn’t really magic, of course, but just the product of someone working with top notch material who gets all the tiny little details right; deep local knowledge and experience guiding the kind of intuitive decision-making that you need to apply all the time when you are growing vines and making wines.
