Delas Frères Saint-Joseph Sainte-Épine 2020

95 points Jeb Dunnuck: "The 2020 Saint Joseph Sainte-Epine is another Hermitage look-alike, with a slightly Bessards-like character in its ripe blue fruits, liquid violets, burning embers, and leather-slanted aromas and flavors. It's more inward, reserved, and focused compared to the François de Tournon but is beautifully concentrated and balanced, with ripe, polished tannins. The purity of fruit here is seriously impressive. It offers plenty of pleasure today yet has another 10-15 years of prime drinking and, I suspect, a gradual decline thereafter. It's slightly more plush and soft compared to the 2015, yet I think at the same quality level. Drink: 2024-2039. (Mar 2024)"

94 points Wine Spectator: "Restrained and tightly focused, this has a sleek mineral edge that carries a core of gently mulled raspberry and black cherry fruit, while light violet, savory and incense hints fill in the background. Sneaky long, too. Best from 2024 through 2034. 500 cases made, 62 cases imported. (2/28/23)"

94 points Stuart Pigott (JamesSuckling.com): "Intense smoke, green and black pepper, clove and flint aromas pull you into this powerful, deep and remarkably fresh St.-Joseph. Makes a serious statement at the long, very stony and energetic finish. Matured only in oak barrels, of which about one quarter were new. Drinkable now, but best from 2025. (4/27/23)"

93-94 points Josh Raynolds (Vinous): "Brilliant purple color. Pungent dark berries, licorice, smoked meat and potpourri on the highly perfumed nose. Shows very good depth as well as energy on the palate, which offers nervy, spice-accented cassis, bitter cherry and black pepper flavors that become sweeter as the wine opens up. Steadily building tannins frame a very long, focused finish that echoes the floral and smoke notes. (Dec 2022)"

91-93 points Joe Czerwinski (Wine Advocate): "Tasted from barrel, the 2020 Saint Joseph Sainte-Epine, from the Saint-Jean de Muzols portion of the appellation, features classic granite-derived notes of crushed stone and restraint, but it also has plentiful notes of raspberries and black olive. Medium to full-bodied, it's dense and structured yet has a long, silky finish. Drink: 2022-2030. (Jan 2022)"

92+ points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "The Sainte-Épine is a single vineyard bottling of Saint-Joseph from Delas, hailing from a hillside vineyard in the commune of Saint-Jean de Muzols, with the soils being stony scree over hard granite. The wine is fermented in cement and raised in oak barrels, with fifty percent new and fifty percent “one wine” casks. The 2020 Sainte-Épine is fairly ripe in this warm vintage, coming in at 14.5 percent octane and delivering a deep and complex bouquet of cassis, dark berries, spit-roasted venison, dark soil tones, a touch of coffee grounds, pepper, spicy oak and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is ripe, full-bodied and beautifully balanced, with a nice plushness to the fruit on the attack, a fine core, lovely soil signature and grip, fine-grained tannins and a long, complex and promising finish. This carries its octane seamlessly and does not show even a hint of backend heat. Fine juice. 2030-2060. (Sep/Oct 2023)"

4 stars **** John Livingstone-Learmonth (The Cradle of the Rhone): "(casks) deep red, black tints; the bouquet has oak-nutshells to the fore, but within lies pure, gently intense black fruit, a note of herbes de Provence. It’s lucid at heart, will be well defined in time. The palate serves cosy, well rounded black fruited content, has wholesome tannins on board, finishes rounded, a little lip smacking. The powder of the Ste Epine sanded granite comes through here. The aftertaste brings in blue fruit, a low-key hint of iron. It carries some classic reserve that will gradually loosen. Decant it. From 2023-24. 2044-46 July 2021."