Saint-Joseph AOC | Château Monty

Saint-Joseph AOC covers wines of all three colours from 26 communes (listed below) in the Ardèche department, on the right bank of the Rhône in the Rhone Valley region of France. The original appellation for Saint-Joseph dates from 1956 and included a six-mile (9.6km) stretch of land covering only six townships, namely Glun, Mauves, Tournon, Saint-Jean-de-Muzols, Lemps and Vion, with Tournon and Saint-Jean-de-Muzols having ‘the deepest viticultural roots,’ because, says John Livingstone-Learmonth (2005, p.444) they were more reliant on wine than other townships which also relied on the growing of fruit and vegetables eg. onions, the flat, rose-coloured type, in the case of Mauves. In 1969 however, the Saint-Joseph appellation was significantly enlarged to a 40-mile stretch (64km) as Guilherand-Granges, Châteaubourg, Sécheras, Arras-sur-Rhône, Ozon, Ardoix, and Sarras in the south, and Talencieux, Andance, Saint-Étienne-de-Valoux, Saint-Désirat, Champagne, Peyraud, Serrières, Félines, Charnas, Limony, Saint-Pierre-de-Bœuf, Malleval, and Chavanay in the north, wewre added.

Vineyard area & wine production: 2002 2,522hl of white and 28,751hl of red from a total of 980ha (Guide Hachette des Vins 2004, p.1034).

Terroir: Steep granitic slopes. Soil: Gore. Views to the Alps, Mount Pilat and the Doux gorge.

Wines

St-Joseph Blanc AOC: Marsanne, Roussanne.

St-Joseph Rouge AOC: Syrah.

Wineries

Certified organic: La Ferme des Sept Lunes.

Bibliography

John Livingstone-Learmonth, The Wines of the Northern Rhone, (University of California Press, 2005).

Oxford Companion to Wine 4th edition ed. Jancis Robinson MW and Julia Harding MW (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Tom Stevenson, The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia 5th Edition (Dorling Kindersley, 2011).