After 30 months in oak, the 2018 Saint-Joseph Vignes de l'Hospice has emerged into bottle as one sexy bacon-scented beast. Add black olives and black cherries, and this is one pretty compelling wine, in a rich, savory style. Full-bodied and concentrated, it finishes silky and long, with a decade or more of evolution ahead of it.

Marked by scents of tar and black olives, cedar and clove, blackberries and cassis, the 2017 Saint-Joseph Vignes de l'Hospice is the most complex, structured and age worthy of the three Saint-Joseph cuvées. The puppy fat and jamminess that were present earlier in its élevage are largely gone, and while the wine is medium to full-bodied, it's also reserved and elegant, with shadings of crushed stone and fine-grained tannins defining the palate and lingering on the finish.

Looking even better than it did from barrel, the 2016 Saint-Joseph Vignes de l'Hospice displays hints of crushed stone on the nose alongside ripe cherries and vanilla. It's full-bodied, rich and silky, showing a sense of granitic reserve on the palate, then adds hints of baking spices and flowering garrigue on the long finish.