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?).

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

This tiny cuvée is the jewel in the crown at this estate. It’s tough for any young domaine to buy vines in Côte-Rôtie these days, and only the very brave attempt it. Graeme and Julie now have two tiny parcels, and this cuvée has already won them much praise as the new kids to get seriously excited about. The 2021 continues their strong form. It is restrained, tightly coiled, and serious. It will need more time than the rest of their wines to open up, but will unfurl in magnificent splendour.

Each year we see the Botts refine their style, and this Condrieu is a contender for most exciting wine of their 2021 vintage. They like to keep freshness in their Condrieu, rather than seeking richness and weight. And so 2021 plays right into their hands: the style is exactly that which they pursue. It is poised and energetic, vibrant and lively, with beautiful aromatic appeal. The granitic soils of Condrieu give the wine minerality and freshness alongside natural ripeness. It should be superb after a year in bottle.

2021 is the greatest vintage for northern Rhône whites since 2014, and this is the best Rocules we can remember tasting. Unlike recent warmer vintages that have lent into the honeyed, nutty, tropical richness of Marsanne, this is fresh, precise, and has its old vine concentration on full display not in high alcohol, but in profound length.

Guillaume Sorrel's whites are as interesting and profound as his reds. This wine from Crozes is a little more forward and floral than the Hermitage wines, making it delicious in its youth. 2021 is an outstanding vintage for northern Rhône whites, and this is a prime example. It is apple-scented, fresh, bright, and with wonderful energy.

This is grown in kaolinite soils, a clay-limestone soil that only accounts for around 1% of Crozes-Hermitage. These white soils result in highly mineral wines. In 2021 Guillaume lost 40% of his crop to frost here, and unusually, applied full destemming to the fruit (the domaine is usually associated with whole bunch fermentation). The result is a fresh, crunchy, and vigorous Crozes, saline rather than spicy, and driven by a sappy minerality.

This is arguably Côte-Rôtie’s most famous vineyard. In 2021, this magnificent Rostaing cuvée bursts with cranberries and nutmeg spice. Grippy little tannins give it a certain austerity in its youth.

This wine is a blend of fruit from various parcels in the southern part of the appellation, but the majority is drawn from the vineyards lying right next to Sylvain’s new cellars, perched at 350m altitude. It is always so fresh and lively, with impressive weight.

This comes from many parcels dotted around the central and southern part of the appellation. Sylvain intelligently handles his fruit: the young vine bunches are destemmed, while the older vines’ stems are kept intact, combining them to produce a highly juicy, perfumed style. It's a spicy Syrah, with the freshness of the 2021 holding it in balance.

This comes from a selection of 100-year-old vines in some of Stéphane’s best parcels, Champelrose, Eygats, and Combe. It follows in the same vein as the Cornas, but with greater presence of tannins and drive. It will therefore need longer in bottle to reach its peak. Hugely elegant, mouth-coating, and intense.

There is something magical here: it is at once aromatically precise, and energised with a wildness, reminiscent of garrigue herbs. As usual, it is a blend of 15 different parcels around Cornas, which Stéphane vinified separately, only blending at the final moment before bottling. Great freshness and balance.

This cuvée flies out the door, so much so that we have to be early to confirm our allocation or it all goes well before the en primeur campaign. Pithy, expressive, and with a supple freshness. It’s beautiful to drink in its youth, but will develop well with some time in bottle.

This comes from a single parcel of very old Marsanne vines in the heart of the village. It shows incredible focus, balance, and length. It’s worth ageing for a while to admire what it can do.

A nutty, waxy wine from one of the masters of white wine in the region. It comes from the vines planted above the winery (an old railway tunnel that burrows through the hillside). It has drive, volume, richness, and a long peach aromatic length. Stéphane is one of just three winemakers in the appellation to bottle a 100% Roussanne.