2021 Northern Rhône

Alain Graillot has long reigned as Crozes-Hermitage’s most respected grower. His sons Maxime and Antoine now run the ship and are making Crozes par excellence. Their Crozes is sweetly fruited, with excellent depth. It always sits in the red spectrum of fruit, where all the best Crozes find themselves. It has structure, but also an effortless tenderness, thanks perhaps to its whole bunch fruit (the influence of Alain’s training at Domaine Dujac?).

Alain Graillot has long reigned as Crozes-Hermitage’s most respected grower. His sons Maxime and Antoine now run the ship and are making Crozes par excellence. Their Crozes is sweetly fruited, with excellent depth. It always sits in the red spectrum of fruit, where all the best Crozes find themselves. It has structure, but also an effortless tenderness, thanks perhaps to its whole bunch fruit (the influence of Alain’s training at Domaine Dujac?).

Alain Voge’s pithy sparkling wine, Les Bulles d’Alain, is unlike anything else we have on our list. It is lively, dry, refreshing, and refined. If you’re in the mood for bubbles, but don’t want the weight of a Champagne, this is the perfect option, and a smart price too. It’s a very good example of why Saint-Péray has built its renown for sparkling wines.

This is the second of the domaine’s signature cuvées (the other is Cornas Les Chailles). It comes from the old vines planted further up the slopes at altitudes ranging from 250-400m. The wine shows old vine intensity, twinned with the precision of the 2021 vintage.

This is one of two signature reds at the domaine (the other being Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes). Les Chailles is tight and firm in its youth, but floral aromatics open up with some aeration, promising this will start drinking well from early on.

This domaine only makes one wine from across the Côte Blonde and Côte Brune, and they throw everything they’ve got at it. In fact, they are the only domaine still producing just one blend in Côte-Rôtie, and when you taste the wine, you know they are fully justified in continuing this tradition. Bernard has recently retired, and his son, Pierre, is clearly hitting his stride. He says 2021 was a difficult year in the vineyard: frost, rain, disease… it had it all, and required a huge amount of work. But in spite of this, he says he’d take a ‘21 every year for the rest of his career, so pleased is he with the final wine. It is fresh and juicy, with some of the most fondant, supple tannins we tasted in the 2021 vintage. Don’t miss.

This has become a firm favourite, not only for its outstanding value for money, but also for its sweetly-fruited, supple and delicious style. It’s everything we look for in a Crozes. The vines are all clustered in the northern sector of the appellation on granitic soils at high altitude (between 120-300m). This resulting wine has charming red fruit, with a juicy, bright drinkability. Highly recommended.

The south-facing schist-terraced Les Picaudières vineyard produces age-worthy, expressive, sumptuous wines. As usual, this wears a little more oak than the straight Crozes-Hermitage, and as a result has a richer depth that will require some patience. It is focused and vibrant, with a wonderful depth of fruit.

André Perret saw some of the heaviest losses from the spring frost of any grower we work with. As a result there is no village Condrieu this year, and a much smaller amount of the magnificent Coteaux de Chéry available. These vineyards are west facing, and therefore get the morning sun a little later than the south/east facing slopes, meaning they weren’t as badly exposed to the morning frost. The wine is truly wonderful - fresh and flowing, with excellent acidity giving it such a pleasing saline/bitter edge. It’s a highlight in any context, particularly this year in a cellar so depleted of its normal volumes. The epitome of tension and precision.

This Coteaux du Lyonnais, which is made from Gamay, has earned a huge following for its upfront peppery blue fruit and soft tannins. The vines grow on decomposed granitic soils that lie south of Lyon, and it’s made by one of Côte-Rôtie’s most accomplished winemakers, Guillaume Clusel. In 2021 it feels crunchier and tighter than some recent vintages, with a sour cherry bite keeping it lively and energetic. As always, it is great value.

This is Clusel Roch’s classic blend. Indeed, until recently it had been called ‘Classique’ rather than Les Schistes. It comes from a range of vineyards across the iron-rich soils of the Côte Brune, including Le Plomb, Montmains, and the bottom of Viallière. The blend is saline and taut, with a flash of fresh cherry running through the palate. Fragrant, with a little cool spice.

This cuvée is always the most powerful in the Clusel Roch stable, and even though the frame of all the 2021s is a little slimmer than recent warmer vintages, this still shows plenty of density and concentration. It comes from vines planted in 1935 by Guillaume Clusel’s great-grandfather. The parcel sits high up, above La Viallière, and makes a complex and structured wine.

La Viallière is one of the great sites of the Côte Brune. Its mid-slope position and high proportion of gravelly stones aid drainage and produce wines of great finesse and voluptuous depth. This was the highlight of the Clusel Roch cellar in 2021 - lovely notes of torrefaction give the sweet fruit a toasty charm. It is a warm site, and usually produces the roundest, richest wine here. In 2021 it is on song: the freshness and elegant balance of the vintage showing it at its best.

In 2021 this has a delightful herbal freshness entwined with the red berry fruit. It comes from granitic slopes in the heart of Cornas. It has no new oak and is always the most floral and forward of the Courbis Cornas wines.

This vineyard was planted in 1945, and the old vines are treated with huge respect in the Courbis cellar. It has been aged in 60% new oak, and will demand more time in bottle than the other Courbis wines. There is a natural density to the fruit, and the wine shows its calibre in a long, powerful finish.

For those seeking sleek Cornas that has the body and structure to age but the open fruit to approach from youth, this is your wine. It is the most refined of the Courbis Cornas wines, and with a well-judged 40% new oak wrapped around the sweet fruit, giving it savoury, toasty depth.

Sometimes there is a marked difference between this and the Grand Vallon and Deponcins cuvées from Villard. But in a vintage like 2021 where the quality is so high, it sits side by side with its cellar siblings: all three fabulous in their different characters. The grapes come from various parcels around Chavany and Vérin. It displays wonderful tropical citrus notes: yuzu and kumquat. Nice mineral length.

This 2021 shows great energy. Bursting with pineapple fruit and mineral depth. It comes from a single vineyard in the south of the appellation, in St Pierre de Boeuf. The east/north-east aspect makes this site cooler than many, and its granite and gneiss soils results in superb mineral tension in the wine.

This site is in Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône, just south of Château Grillet, where the quartzite mica-schist soils make wines of length and finesse. It is bright and vibrant with impressive tension derived from its freshness. The pinnacle of the Villard cellar.

Sybarine comes from the vines that surround the Garon cellar, nestled at the bottom of the Côte Blonde. Its granite soils make for an open, refined, and silky Côte-Rôtie. This was bottled before the other Côte-Rôties, and is easily the most approachable of the four cuvées, drinking well from early on. No new oak is used, with the emphasis on Syrah’s peppery and sappy style.

This is one of the finest sites of the Côte Blonde. Its depth of fruit is clear, even in the 2021 vintage that tends towards lighted, more restrained wines. Supporting new oak gives it spice and succulence. Of all the Garon cuvées, this will benefit the most from some time in the cellar, though it should drink well from just 3 to 4 years.

This fantastic site on the Côte Brune is shared between just three growers. The Garons’ vines were replanted in 1980 and 2001, and their youthful vigour produces a juicy wine, with a rounded balance. 30% whole bunch and 30% new oak add silkiness and depth.

This comes from four neighbouring lieux-dits on the Côte Blonde: Lancement, La Triote, Le Combard and Le Mollard. They share a high proportion of white schist in their soils, making for an intense and savoury expression. It is glossy, black-fruited, with a fresh, tense length.

A first swirl of this in the glass and you’ll fall for it. It’s a juicy, pure, light-footed, and expressive Syrah that comes from vines planted just beyond the limits of the Côte-Rôtie appellation. The 2021 is fragrant and open, with vivid cherry and cranberry notes. There’s a deliciously leafy freshness, with the scent of peonies woven through the fruit. Fresh, bright, and appetising. Stock up. This has fast become a Lay & Wheeler favourite.