A wonderfully balanced wine with an impressive body.

An inviting, deep black color with beautiful brilliance. The wine has a very refined nose, revealing delicate aromas of black pepper and wild berries. On the palate, it is rich and opulent with powerful tannins, perfectly complemented by a wonderful freshness derived from the minerality of the granite soil. A racy and very elegant Saint Joseph, it is still very young and should age for several years before reaching drinking maturity.

We recommend opening the wine ideally within its first three years and enjoying it with grilled meat, game dishes or a classic pigeon.

After a hot and unusually dry summer, the wines impress with their opulence, concentration, and fullness. The aging process makes the wines more appealing and balanced.

Appellation:
The Saint-Joseph appellation is located between the villages of St. Pierre de Boeuf and Charvanay in the northern Rhône. For a long time, all the vineyards there were owned by small local winegrowers who produced exclusively for their own consumption. Before them, it was monks who began viticulture here centuries ago.

Terroir:
The bedrock of the Saint-Joseph region consists primarily of granite, and the vineyards stretch 40 km along the right bank of the Rhône. For this first vintage of Saint-Joseph Rouge, the best grapes were selected from the northern vineyards of the appellation, which offer rich minerality and fruit, as well as grapes from the historic center of Saint-Joseph, "Village de Mauves," which lend the wine its impressive body. The result is a wonderfully balanced wine.

Maison & Domaines Les Alexandrins - Northern Rhône

Three personalities from the northern Rhône Valley represent the new company "Domaine & Maison Les Alexandrins": Nicolas Jaboulet, 6th generation of a winemaking family that settled in Tain l'Hermitage in 1834; Guillaume Sorrel, son of Marc Sorrel of Domaine Sorrel in Hermitage; and Alexandre Caso, an expert in the terroirs of the northern Rhône Valley.

They met in 2012, when Nicolas Jaboulet (head of Maison Nicolas Perrin, founded in 2007), Guillaume Sorrel, and Alexandre Caso (both of whom founded Domaine Les Alexandrins in Mercurol in 2009) introduced plot-by-plot cultivation of the Crozes-Hermitage vineyards for Maison Nicolas Perrin's wines. Their combined expertise has shaped the history of the Northern Rhône Valley.

With a similar mindset, all three are interested in the great wines of their region and quickly had ambitious goals. In 2014, Alexandre and Guillaume expressed their desire to further develop their wines from Domaine Les Alexandrins. At the same time, Nicolas wanted to establish his company, Maison Nicolas Perrin, in the heart of the northern Rhône Valley. And so, a closer collaboration eventually came about.

Since 2015, Maison Nicolas Perrin has held a majority stake in Domaine Les Alexandrins, which led to the name change to "Domaine et Maison Les Alexandrins." This collaboration has allowed Domaine Les Alexandrins to continue pursuing its dream of producing wines of the Northern Rhône Valley that are fundamentally classicist, and has also allowed Maison Nicolas Perrin to transform into Maison Les Alexandrins, thus expanding its renowned wine offering to all appellations of the Northern Rhône Valley.

Nicolas Jaboulet, Guillaume Sorrel, and Alexandre Caso unearth treasures here, often forgotten or ancient vines from exceptional terroirs that express the splendor of the appellation. The three men draw on the skill and experience of their parents and grandparents. Therefore, they produce exclusively wines that reflect the purest form of the Crozes-Hermitage and Saint-Joseph appellations, with their vines planted on historic terroirs. The domaine is therefore limited in several respects: in terms of appellations (Crozes-Hermitage, Saint-Joseph) and in terms of volume.

The work is carried out plot by plot. The vines are cultivated as they once were, in the tradition of the region's winemakers. This applies to the over 70-year-old Syrah vines in Crozes-Hermitage, but also to the over 90-year-old, forgotten vines in Tournon (Saint-Joseph). And every year—whether the harvest is complete or not—Domaine Les Alexandrins applies practices that are often forgotten in the northern Rhône Valley today.

Maison Les Alexandrins is the natural evolution of the former Maison Nicolas Perrin. The company had already enjoyed extraordinary success and multiple awards since 2007. It continued to develop in the northern Rhône Valley by relying on highly experienced individuals and focusing on one domain: Domaine Les Alexandrins, located in the heart of the Crozes-Hermitage appellation.

The wines from Maison Les Alexandrins therefore reflect the entire work of the domaine. They are more modern in their appearance (since the domaine's limited production, other wines are also offered, which was not previously common); they are more contemporary in their style (the goal is perfect harmony even in young wines, which thus offer early drinking pleasure); they are more diverse in terms of the wines offered from the northern Rhône Valley (not just Crozes-Hermitage and Saint-Joseph).

This selection invites wine lovers worldwide to explore and appreciate the traditions of the Northern Rhône Valley from a new perspective. The selection consists of both contemporary and timeless wines, each sourced from an exceptional terroir discovered by Northern Rhône Valley terroir expert Alexandre Caso. Eight different wines embody this revived classicism.

Manufacturer: Nicolas Jaboulet, Maison Nicolas Perrin, 29 Côte des Chapeliers, 26000 Valence, France