The red wines from Ferraton include a good but relatively high-acid, stony, tart 2005 St.-Joseph La Source. This could easily pass for a red Burgundy from a leaner vintage. Pure strawberry and cherry fruit notes intermixed with forest floor and earth are present in this mid-weight wine. Give it 2-3 years of cellaring and drink it over the following decade. As I said last year, Michel Chapoutier is expending considerable amounts of money and energy to upgrade the wines of Ferraton. He still controls the biodynamic farming of many of their vineyards, and is totally responsible for the negociant blends that are put together. His emphasis is on terroir, purity of fruit, and earlier bottling to preserve the wine’s character. I thought the 2006s were perhaps his strongest overall vintage since he has been running this enterprise. In approaching the Ferraton wines, one has to realize the lower end is the negociant range, which include their generic Cotes du Rhones, the Crozes-Hermitage La Matiniere, the St.-Joseph, and the Hermitage Les Miaux, and then of course, the single-vineyard wines such as the St.-Joseph Les Oliviers, Ermitage Les Dionnieres, Ermitage Le Meal, and Crozes-Hermitage Le Grand Courtil.Importer: A French Paradox, Peoria, IL; tel. (309) 682-8994