Walls: Tasting five vintages of Domaine Gonon St-Joseph

As a wine critic, witnessing a relatively unknown estate rise up and receive the recognition it deserves can be a bittersweet feeling.

From a purely selfish point of view, you watch the prices rise inexorably so you can no longer afford to drink wines from that estate as often as you once did. But primarily you’re delighted for the owners and for those who have discovered their wines.

Scroll down for Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for five vintages of Domaine Gonon St-Joseph

I’ve been buying the wines of Domaine Gonon in St-Joseph since the 2006 vintage, when the wines retailed around £20 a bottle.

Now they sell for almost four times that amount, if not more. Do I still buy them? Yes; I’m hopelessly hooked. For wines of this quality, in a global context, I don’t think the prices are unreasonable.

With only a few bottles of the earlier vintages left in my collection, I thought a short vertical tasting would be an interesting way to polish them off, opening the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, along with the 2018 for wider context, given that it’s the current vintage available in the UK.

The estate

Which is the greatest estate in St-Joseph? It’s a tricky question. Since the appellation stretches over 50km from north to south, the concept of St-Joseph is fairly nebulous compared to a tightly defined area like Cornas or Hermitage.

But if I had to pick one, I wouldn’t hesitate in choosing Domaine Gonon.

Don’t be surprised, however, if you’re not familiar with the Gonon brothers. They are better winemakers than marketeers. They don’t even have a website. But they don’t need one. When you track these wines down, they speak for themselves.

Pierre and Jean Gonon live and work in the village of Mauves, the historic heart of St-Joseph, and their 10ha of vineyards are close by in Mauves, Tournon and St-Jean-du-Muzols.

They didn’t study winemaking formally but learnt it from their father, also called Pierre, from whom they took over the estate in 1988.

The range of wines

Most of what Domaine Gonon makes is red St-Joseph – a pure, wild and intense expression that lasts for years – and that’s what this tasting consisted of.

They typically use between 80% and 90% whole bunches depending on the year. The cellar set up is relatively new, but barrels are old, and they use demi-muids rather than barriques.

Work in the vineyards is meticulous, starting with the vines themselves, which are all selection massale, with not a clone in sight.

They work organically, mostly by hand and horse.

There are a few other wines in their range, all of which are worth trying: an excellent, rich white St-Joseph called Les Oliviers; a vanishingly rare red St-Joseph called Vieilles Vignes made from old vines bought from Raymond Trollat; a very good IGP Ardèche Syrah called Les Iles Feray; and a charming Vin de France Chasselas from nearby vines planted in 1890.

How did the five vintages taste?

I drank the 2010 red St-Joseph with Jean Gonon in 2019, and then again in 2020. Though thrilling to see its potential, it was still tight and tannic on both occasions.

This year it seems to be finally opening up. No surprises they excelled in such a great vintage – but wait a few more years, if you can.

The 2009 was softer and more approachable, comfortably in its prime, with no signs of tiring. A delicious, flattering vintage.

The 2008 vintage was difficult in the northern Rhône – cool and wet – and many wines were disappointing.

But great terroir and careful winegrowing rarely yields a bad wine, and Domaine Gonon’s 2008 is still enjoyable today, despite the slightly unripe green streak running through it.

The biggest surprise of the tasting was the 2007. It was a great vintage in the southern Rhône, but notably cooler and damper in the north, and the wines can lack richness.

But Domaine Gonon’s 2007 is in a fantastic place at the moment, offering beguiling complexity and fluency of expression.

Looking to the current release, the 2018 is incredibly delicious now, its flavour profile the perfect rendering of a St-Joseph.

I don’t think it will be a long-lived vintage, but when it’s this good, it doesn’t need to be.

Even if the prices continue to rise, I’ll continue to buy the Gonon brothers’ wines. Following a domaine over many years is one of the most rewarding facets of being a wine lover.

Whether you know the winemakers personally or not, you build a relationship with the wines, spending time with them, watching them develop over the years. It’s almost like a friendship. And that’s something money can’t buy.

Tasting notes and scores for five vintages of Domaine Gonon St-Joseph:

Related content:

St-Joseph 2020: report and top-scoring wines

Walls: Tasting Hermitage 2001 20 years on

Rhône 2020 En Primeur: full vintage report and top-scoring wines