93+ points - Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate. Crafted from 15 different plots with three main lieux-dits: Saint-Joseph and Peygros in the commune of Tournon and Le Paradis in Mauves, the 2022 Saint-Joseph from Bernard Gripa is a real success. It unfurls in the glass with aromas of mulberries, dark berries, cassis, spices and flowers mingled with leafy notes. Medium to full-bodied, dense and layered, it’s structured with a fleshy core of fruit and muscular tannins, concluding with a long, spicy, vibrant and youthful finish. Matured in a combination of used barrels and fermented with 20% whole bunches.
92 points - Matt Walls, Decanter Very fresh mulberry and raspberry aromas. Soft and silky style, very juicy, with good acidity and freshness making this ready to drink already. A fairly delicate but correct and classic expression of St-Joseph, with very fine tannins.
St Joseph of Rare Power, Brightness and Class.
"I just tasted this 2023 red today, for the first time, and it is stupendously great! The Decanter note below is right in stating "classic and correct" but the 92pt score, IMHO is very mean / tight! This is a simply mind-blowingly great, clean, pure, focused, fruity, smokey-meaty, raspberry and pepper infused red dripping with class. I'm so excited to take a bottle home later this week to drink it and watch it unfurl over several hours. This has more "brightness" and pepper than a Chave, less iodine and ferruginous character than a Gonon, and more minerality and less oak than a single-site Guigal." Bernard Gripa is a leading name in the Northern Rhône, known for wines of quiet power and crystalline precision from the steep granite slopes of Saint-Joseph and Saint-Péray. There is a marsanne/roussanne that shimmers with minerality as well as the afore-mentioned shiraz, the wines are thoughtful, restrained, and resolutely terroir-driven. Run by Bernard and his son Fabrice, the domaine marries generations of tradition with a mastery of touch, producing some of the region’s cleanest, most elegant and age-worthy whites and reds.
