Actually, in part at least, why not? I certainly have found myself studying a restaurant wine list and ending up wandering down to the St. Josephs after deciding that the Cote Roties are too expensive. But of course St. Joseph โ good St. Joseph โ offers much more than that. Its greatest wines are special in their own right. They come from terroirs that are distinct, though similar, to the great terroirs of the famous AOCs.
Some of them reach heights equal to the greatest wines in the Northern Rhone. This has even been recognized by the market, and there is now one St. Joseph that sells for more than Lafite Rothschild!
Even putting aside those special wines, St. Joseph is able to offer something unique: a Northern Rhone Syrah that typically offers more drinkability, more vibrancy and more liveliness than its famous cousins. While some are powerful wines that require years of cellaring, the majority of St. Josephs are wines you can enjoy on release.
Many offer a casualness that permits drinking with simpler meals or even on its own. Yeah, the lower price tag helps with that.
Whether at the serious or casual end of the spectrum, St. Joseph offers a lot of diversity. The vineyards cover a series of different hills with slightly varying soil types , and there are lots of different producers taking slightly different approaches in the cellar. Joseph is that it accords perfectly with my philosophy of keeping a Reasonable Cellar. The wines are high in quality but rarely over-hyped and thinly-allocated.
