The Beginning of Things. An Incredible St. Joseph at Pre-Tariff, Pre-St Jo Inflation Prices

My Babies in St. Joseph Are Growing Up 
 - Prices Are Increasing
 - Some of My Customers Are Getting Priced Out
 - I've Been Researching Like Crazy for New Ones

Cave Pinheiro
 - A New Tiny Estate a Few Miles South, Next to Cornas
 - 2,000 Bottles Made
 - Reminds Me of the Brilliant St. Josephs of Fauterie
 - An Elegant Density

2018 Cave Pinheiro St. Joseph Cuvee Les Machons
 - Nose: Intensely Mineral and Super Floral
 - Palate: Inner Mouth Florals are off the Charts
 - Fantastic Dark Berry Concentration
 - Remarkable Elegance
 - Astonishing Length
 - Gorgeous Texture
 - Melty Tannins

Don "...only likes the beginnings of things"

Faye Miller, Mad Men

Of course, I'm a huge fan of Mad Men.  For me, one of the great things about the show is the almost casual use of calmly stated dialogue that reveals more than a thousand words. In any case, Don Draper has been dating Faye Miller for some time. She's intelligent and understands him (even though he's hardly faithful, of course). He dumps her for a gorgeous secretary, she of the gapped teeth). Faye tells him that he "only likes the beginning of things." Of course, the beginnings are in a sense the best. Everything is new and exciting and it's before things get hard and you actually have to work at it.  And in wine the beginnings are best too.  After all, no one has heard of the wineries as I've just discovered them and the wines are inexpensive and we can buy as much as we want.

I've been saying for some time that the wines of the Northern Rhone are insane values for the

money?  Well, the market seems to have caught on and prices are increasing.... a lot. The wineries whose brands I built here are still selling well but they are pricing themselves out of the reach of some of my customers. So I've been on an intense research project to dig deep and find new producers who I can build brands for and increase their prices.  And so it goes.

Cave Pinheiro
One of these estates I had read about and also been recommended by a friend. The estate is named Cave Pinheiro and is located in the beautiful, village of Chateaubourg, which is like a mile from Cornas.  This is south of the best known villages in St. Joseph by all of a couple of miles.  Really out there. This pic is from 1 minute away from his estate. Gorgeous and very hilly. Aurelian Pinheiro was a hard man to contact and the winery has no website and only a FB Page which is not checked much if ever.  But it all worked out and then it was a special mission to find him as there was a non descript warehouse. Sometimes,  the non descript warehouses are where all the magic happens.

The Rise of St. Joseph
The most exciting appellation in the Northern Rhone is St. Joseph. It's not even a contest. I remember in the mid 2000s I would joke about St. Joseph being wack with one my good wine buddies. He was a sommelier and it was always a joke between us when I asked him if he sold any exciting wine that night, he'd always be like "oh just some St. Josephs." Then we'd both crackup for a few minutes. It was a joke. Crozes had a better reputation back then and Crozes was really not great back then. Hermitage, Cornas and Cote-Rotie were not that expensive so why trade down? St. Joseph is large and there are very specific expressions of St. Joseph for very different terroir. People are still learning what terroir is best and global warming also is a factor in the rise of St. Joseph. Once maligned sites are now suitable for vines, not only for good to very good wine but also great wine. It's a great time to be a St. Joseph drinker. The entry level price is still relatively inexpensive and there are new producers popping up every day.

Aurelian Pinheiro
Before he became a winemaker, Aurelian was an apricot farmer. The N. Rhone is known for their exquisite apricots. His grandmother made goat cheese. His grandfather had an accident in 2003 and his father took over. In 2017, sadly his father passed away and now at 37, he is on his own with 1 hectare of vines. He's planting new vines as of now and in 3-4 years he says he will have maybe 5 hectares. The astonishing thing about Aurelien is he has no winemaking training at all and learned all on his own. He has not worked at any other estates. He was shocked that I found him. He basically said that he learned winemaking the way a baby learns to swim. "Person throws baby in water and the baby sinks or swims."  Not to use a grim metaphor but Aurelien has not sunk and is swimming like Michael Phelps. His wines remind me of the great St. Josephs of Sylvain Bernard of the Domaine de Fauterie.  But all who know those wines know how rare and special they are. Aurelian's St. Josephs are only grown in clay rock and he makes around 2,000 bottles of his two St. Joseph cuvees.

The Wines
Today I am starting with a wine so shockingly great I could not believe it. It reminded me of my first tasting with Herve Murat in Burgundy, where I was in such shock how great the wines were that I had to check with my partner if my palate was deceiving me. This time I checked with my translator/driver and she agreed that my palate was not deceiving me and these wines were extraordinary.

Today I have the top St. Joseph from Cave Pinheiro, which is the 2018 Cave Pinheiro St. Joseph Cuvee Les Machons for $29.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. NO TARIFF! This is an amazing wine and one I hope to drink at Thanksgiving 2019 as it's a great story, the wine is insane and I love sharing wines like these, which to be honest, are a different type of unicorn than your classic ones. If things didn't happen that led me here, who knows if he would have never been discovered or at least it would have been delayed.

The nose immediately hits you as being intensely mineral and super floral. A sense of deepness and intense spice. You really smell the clay, which is also reminds of the Fauterie St. Josephs. Gets going after air. Wow. What. A. Nose. Clay, dry clay and wet clay, olive, game, red berry fruit, granite and very stoney. Smells so old school and very stoney. Elegant and so pure. Beautiful. Very pure. Gorgeous black cherry as well and blackberry. Really compelling.

On the palate, there are terrific dark berry fruits. Blackberry, cassis, dark black cherries abound and mix in with the spice/floral/mineral elements so well. It's fantastically concentrated and complex but also so light on its feet. So elegant and so stylish. The purity is brilliant and the inner mouth florals are off the charts. Really, really fine and so refined with tremendously ripe and sweet tannins and just extraordinary fruit. This is as good a new St. Joseph as I've ever tasted. Super juicy and clean. Gorgeous mouthfeel and super stoney complexity. Balanced, clean and so pure. Inner mouth aromas are violets. Awesome. The stonier side of St. Joseph. Long chewy and very velvety tannins. Really great. Sappy tiny berry fruit intensity as well on the finish but the stones wash it all away.

The length is just astonishing. It never ends. I can't believe this was out there for me to find. This has gorgeous texture and that allied with the sweetness, grace and refinement make this an unreal wine. 


Eight hours ago I also had the 2016 version of this wine, which is sold out and that was wonderful, but very different as it reflected that vintage more and seemed more mineral, less fruity and more elegant. It was great but I preferred the 2018.

2018 Cave Pinheiro St. Joseph Cuvee Les Machons - $31.99 

($119.96 4-pack) (VERY LIMITED) (NO TARIFF!)