According to Vinous, “Gonon is what Saint-Joseph is all about: elegance, classicism and a level of terroir-driven transparency that is hard to beat.” Brothers Pierre and Jean Gonon have run the family domaine in Mauves, the historic heart of the appellation, since 1989, farming roughly ten hectares spread across some forty plots on the granite slopes of Mauves, Tournon, and Saint-Jean-de-Muzols, the three original communes of Saint-Joseph. Their father founded the estate in 1956, the same year the appellation was recognized, and the brothers have added to it with care, most famously the century-old vines in Saint-Jean-de-Muzols they took on from the legendary Raymond Trollat when he retired. The vineyards are farmed organically and plowed by horse where the slopes allow. Every new planting comes from their own massal selection, and the single red cuvée is fermented with indigenous yeasts in old wooden vats, largely whole cluster with the proportion shifting by the year, before a year or more in well-used demi-muids and foudres. The result is the reference point for syrah on granite: perfumed, savory, and built to age.

The 2013 season was the coldest and slowest the Gonons had ever worked. Rain and chill ran through June, flowering was uneven, and the crop came in small and late. A sunny September with cool nights rescued it, raising sugars while holding on to acidity, and picking finished on October 10, the latest harvest date ever recorded at the domaine. Antonio Galloni at Vinous gave the result 94 points, singling out its balance, focus, and lift.

Thirteen years from the vintage, it is only now unwinding. Raspberry and black pepper lead, with menthol, licorice, tobacco leaf, and forest floor behind and a thread of black olive running through. Medium-bodied and precise, with a firm core of tannin and an undercurrent of acidity that keeps it savory and fresh through a long, peppery finish. Gonon in its most classical, structured form. Drink through 2033.