- Only 900 Bottles Made
- Pre-Tariff, Pre Gonon Made St. Jo. Famous Pricing ($32.99)
- Almost at the Level of Her Hermitage
- In 2018, At the Level of Gonon - Open It Blind Next To Gonon
- Stunning Super Expressive Nose
- Mashed Dark Flowers, Leather, Earth, Granite,
- Deep Cassis, Blackberry, Olive, Dark Berry Fruit
- 11/10 Aromatics
- Palate: Precise and Textured
- Awesome Granite Minerality
- Blackberry and Cassis Fruit
- Would Be $50+ Through 3 Tier
- Velvety
- A 15-18 Year Wine
- 2017 Was 92+ WA
- Stupendous Vintage - Maybe Better than 2015
- Case Pricing is $29.99! INSANE
2018 Michelle Luyton Hermitage Blanc
- PLEASE DO NOT MISS THIS
- I REPEAT PLEASE DO NOT MISS THIS
- Please Buy at Least a Bottle to Try
- This Will Change How You Think About White Hermitage
- An Utterly Majestic Wine
- Smallest Production White Wine in Hermitage
- Nose: Gorgeous ... Beautiful
- White Flowers upon White Flowers
- A Bride in White in a Field of Daisies
- The Richness Is an Element, Not the Story
- When This Matures, the Nose Will Be a Death Bed Wine
- Palate - Integrated Juicy Fruit, Acidity, Minerality,
- Grilled Nuts and Marzipan
- Explosive Internal Aromatics
- Gets to Every Nook and Cranny of your Palate
- Can Compete with Any Wine in Hermitage in 2018
- More Like Dense Grand Cru Burgundy than Young Chave
- Ultra Luxury, Billionaire Wine for $58
- Case Pricing is $57.99 - INSANE!
I'll be honest, the wines of Michele Luyton have snuck up on me. I first started selling them because they were very well made and ridiculous values (Hermitage under $50). The domain had been selling grapes and Michele had recently started to make her own wine. The wines have been getting better every year bit by bit since I started with Michele. There really has been no leap (my phrase for a dramatic one year leap in quality). It's been steady. And maybe that's why these wines have snuck up on me. But it doesn't really matter - they have now arrived. Both of these wines have among the best finesse of any wine in the Northern Rhone. I would put them up there with best of breed. You will all pounce on the St. Joseph. I am encouraging you NOT to miss out on the Hermitage Blanc.
Brief Interlude: The St. Joseph Hierarchy
If you put Michelle's St. Joseph in a line up of Gonon, Fauterie, Darbaud, Pierres Seches, St. Epine
If you look at styles in St. Joseph, I would broadly place the top producers in 3 groups. First, you have Gonon, Luyton and Fauterie which I would say are among the most elegant stylistically. There is that density, of course, but the great things about these wines is that the fruit is held in check enough so that the floral, spicy secondary characteristics are in line. Gripa, I would say, has a more density forward, darker style. The wines are remarkable for their balance given that density. Pierres Seches and St. Epine, I would say are in the middle.
With the 2018 St. Joseph, Luyon is at Gonon level and the wines are stunningly inexpensive for how great they are.
The Wines
The 2018 Michelle Luyton St. Joseph can be had for $32.99 a bottle on a 4-pack and a special case price of $29.99! She only made 900 bottles! That is barely anything. This is a stunning St. Joseph and is vastly underpriced compared to where St. Joseph is going price wise. The 18s are powerful wines and thus this has no 25% tariff.
What an epic St. Joseph. This is almost at the level of her Hermitage these days. Just a stunning super expressive nose of mashed dark flowers, leather, earth, granite, deep cassis, blackberry, olive and just so nuanced and expressive. Deep, deep fruit. Violets. After air, there is mint, leaves, dark berry fruit, minerals, flowers, lavender, campfire and slabs of granite. It's super aromatic.
Palate is superb. Precise and textured with just awesome granite minerality and oodles of blackberry and cassis fruit but becomes cleansed with the granitic snapback on the finish. Stunningly pure and so, so elegant. Balanced like you would not believe. Complex and concentrated. Ripe and juicy with major structure and definition. Tannins are high quality and just so velvety and perfectly sweet and also mineral. Hermitage-like tannins.
The finish is so so long and just stunning. It gets to every nook and cranny of the palate. This is exceptional. There is serious fruit density and amazing concentration and velvety melty tannins. So juicy and oh so delicious. Already showing terrific complexity. This should be $50+I would think via 3-tier. It's got amazing structure and the juiciest and ripest very high quality tannins. And my god they are sweet. This is a 15-18 year wine and a terrific value.
Brief Discussion of White Hermitage
Now I have one of the best value and most achingly beautiful white wines I will ever sell. So Hermitage is a monster. The hill is iconic and so are the wines. But they are so huge and over the top when young, it's almost pointless to drink them. They need 10-20 years and then they become things of beauty - as good as top Burgundy in good years. The iconic producer is Chave - and this paragraph describes his Hermitage perfectly.
But there are a small number of producers that produce Hermitage that is on the elegant side that tastes more like very dense Grand Cru Burgundy. One is a hero of mine, Marc Sorrel (who I've never been able to sell). The other is Michele Luyton. Michele's archingly elegant style produces Hermitage Blanc that marries the density of the terroir with minerality and acidic balance. Make no mistake - this is an utterly majestic wine.
The Insanity of Hermitage Blanc Pricing
How much does Montrachet cost? How much does G-Max cost? And on and on. How much does Chave Hermitage Blanc in a great vintage? All of these wines are in the quadruple digits realm and Chave is in mid triple digits for a great vintage. I believe high quality
White Hermitage is one the greatest high quality white wine values in the world. I'll admit it's not for beginner drinkers. Drink enough St. Joseph Blanc and Crozes Hermitage Blanc and you'll have an itching for something more and then you can appreciate all the complexity and regal character of a great White Hermitage. I strongly believe in the ladder. You can't have 85 Chave and then have a 2010 Sorrel Crozes-Hermitage Blanc and appreciate the Sorrel. You started at the top. There's nothing higher. Maybe 59 Chave Blanc. I sell an awful lot of Crozes Blanc and St. Joseph Blanc as I believe these are terrific values and also I believe they are some of the most interesting, dynamic and food friendly wines on the planet. Luyton is a gem in our portfolio as she absolutely hands down makes the most regal, aristocratic and most stunning Hermitage Blanc in all of the Rhone for the money. No one comes close.
The 2018 Michelle Luyton Hermitage Blanc is magic. For $59.99 a bottle on a 4-pack and a special case price of $57.99! Pure magic. When I emailed Michelle to get the price, she said do you remember tasting it? I said, How could I forget? It is a memorable, magical elixir. You'll be lucky you own some.
This is a profound bottle of white wine and one of the greatest N. Rhone whites I've sold. Maybe the greatest as what is so profound about this is how expensive it drinks. 2018 is one of the best White Rhône vintages I've ever tasted. Finesse and electricity married with fat typicity makes these something else. I have made this a 4-pack because to not drink this wine young is a pox on you. It is stunning. Yes it will be better down the road but the aging curve of Marsanne is odd and the wines can shut down and seem over the hill and then re-emerge after this dumb/dead period. So drink one young. Then I'd wait 10 years. This is the smallest production white wine in Hermitage.
The nose is gorgeous and beautiful. Slamming. Honey and flowers are there to start and it takes around 20 minutes to open up into the regal majesty this vineyard is known for. There are white flowers upon white flowers. So, so clean - like a summer bride in a field of daises on her wedding day. Unreal granite minerality. It punches you in the face then kisses your cheek with its aromas. It's so stunning and I cannot imagine what it will smell and taste like once it matures. It is ultra refined on the nose. Great White Hermitage can be one of the most refined wines on the planet.
The Palate
Oh man. Incredibly juicy and elegant with pure flavors like fresh powder after a snowfall. Amazing balance, structure and freshness. 4 dimensional texture. It's almost perfect on the palate. The depth is incredible but in a complex way, not a blowsy way. It is buffered by gorgeous acidity. It's so energetic on the palate with loads of nuts and honeysuckle with insane inner mouth white flower aromas. It is just perfection. It gets to every nook and cranny of your palate and floods it with glycerin. Yet due to the conditions of the vintage (hot days, cool nights) you have insane freshness and great acidity to buffer and frame all that glycerin. The level of finesse Michelle has brought to the 2018 can compete with the top examples of white Hermitage. So much structure and density. The length is outrageous! It never ends. Yet so delicate. The palate is so pure it is almost like a mountain spring water of Hermitage. Flavors of grilled nuts and marzipan are dominant on the palate with brilliant minerality and insane inner moith florals. There is a the most discreet and brilliant application of oak that adds so much. Michelle is brilliant when it comes to oak. Never ever too much, never too little, just right. So juicy. I mean super juicy. So fresh, so pure. There is terroir footprint like no other. Wet earth. It's like raining in the glass.
2018 Michelle Luyton St. Joseph - $34.99
($131.96 4-pack, $359.88 12 bottle case {$29.99!})
2018 Michelle Luyton Hermitage Blanc - $61.99
($149.97 4-pack, $695.88 12 bottle case {$57.99}) (*Including tariff of $7.19)
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