Saint Joseph must indeed have been saintly, stepping into raise the child of a father who, while he can't really be said to have been absent, certainly wasn't your classic father-figure. He is the patron saint of the family, fathers and expectant mothers, but also the patron of scorned husbands, which to a jaded eye makes some sense...

His link to the appellation of Saint Joseph is even more tenuous than his link to his stepson: the wines from the region, known as Vin de Mauves, were popular in the court of Louis XII, who owned a vineyard in the area. The name Saint Joseph was taken from a Jesuit vineyard (now owned by Guigal); the appellation was formalised as a small 100hectare wine-growing region in 1956, and expanded in 1971 to its current size of around 3000 hectares. The area under vine is the second-largest in the Northern Rhone after Crozes-Hermitage.

We've pulled together a selection of reds and whites from four different producers.

Bordeaux 2019 tasting has been postponed to next week. Apologies! /JH