E. Guigal, Saint-Joseph (Rhône Valley, France) 2016

 This wine is certainly among the most famous and prestigious bottlings from Saint-Joseph, and though it is definitely not necessary to spend at this three-digit level to get a wine of the highest quality, the fact remains that this is a reference point to be taken seriously.  Aged in 100% new oak barrels, this gets the same high-end treatment of all the other top end Guigal wines (including the three $400+ single site Côte-Rôtie offerings), for better or worse.  (Meaning, better in excellent vintages when the juice can support the wood, and better for those with cellars and patience to let the oak be absorbed by the wine; worse for the impatient and those of more modest financial means.)  In 2016, the fruit material is definitely up to the challenge posed by the wood, and though it will take years for the wine to integrate what now seems like a one-two combination punch of dense fruit and aggressive oak, this will definitely become a great wine.  As an aside, I should note that while Guigal has enjoyed a nearly peerless reputation in the USA since the 1980s, thanks in large part to the lofty praise of Robert Parker, many of the European wine writers whom I’ve befriended when tasting in the Rhône think this house is over-rated, usually on the ground that the wines are insufficiently individuated because of the aggressive oaking applied to all of them.  There’s certainly some validity to that, but the criticism dissipates in validity over time as the wines age, suggesting to my mind that the overwhelming blame for mistreatment falls on consumers rather than the producer.