2012 St Joseph Les Royes

A significant step up and a smoking white that’s one of the top in the appellation, the 2012 Saint Joseph Les Royes Blanc offers striking minerality, as well as rich, layered notes of vanilla creme, brioche, sauteed peaches and honeysuckle. Medium-bodied, textured and yet still fresh and even elegant, it’s a gorgeous wine to drink over the coming 5-7 years. This was a stacked lineup from this top-notch estate, and I was able to taste through the lineup multiple times, once while visiting the domaine, and again in a larger lineup of wines from each appellation. They never failed to impress. Located in the tiny town of Chateaubourg and covering roughly 50 acres in Saint-Joseph and 20 in Cornas, most of which are ideally situated, Courbis is now run by Laurent and Dominique Courbis, with Laurent running the cellar and Dominique managing the vineyards. Despite the high quality, these wines remain reasonably priced, and also see good distribution in the US. It’s an estate that needs to be on every Northern Rhone lover’s short list. Importer: Russell Herman, Berkeley Heights, NJ; tel. (908) 771-9082