jamie goode's wine blog: A lovely northern Rhône Syrah from Maxime Graillot

Sunday, February 14, 2010

A lovely northern Rhône Syrah from Maxime Graillot


This is a really lovely northern Rhône Syrah, made by Maxime Graillot, son of Alan (the most famous grower in this appellation of Crozes-Hermitage). It's quite an edgy, polarising sort of wine, though: with its high acidity and bold, striking flavours, some will fall in love while others will find it a bit too much.

It's just my sort of wine. I'd much rather have these somewhat wild, untamed flavours that speak so clearly of the place it comes from, than something more polished and accessible.

Domaine des Lises Equis Crozes-Hermitage 2007 Northern Rhône, France
There’s no doubting where this wine comes from. With its meaty, peppery, spicy, savoury, almost bloody nose it’s obviously cool climate Syrah from the Rhône. The palate is fresh and savoury with high acidity and meaty, peppery raspberry and plum fruit. There’s a degree of clarity and precision to the fruit that keeps it from being rustic. A brilliant effort. 92/100 (£15.95 BBR)

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4 Comments:

At 1:47 PM, Anonymous Keith Prothero said...

How would you compare this in terms of enjoyment and value for money with the MOW and other NZ syrah you have tasted recently?

 
At 10:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

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At 9:39 AM, Blogger Jeff and Mandy said...

Jamie--I suspect you have more experience with Crozes-Hermitage than I, but one thing I've noticed that seems to characterize this appellation as a whole is exactly what you said, an untamed, sauvage meatiness allied to breathtaking acidity. Granted, that characterization could defer to random vintage conditions, but I think those two aspects of the wine would still remain. A lot of that has to do with clonal variety and soil ionization, the latter of which would have implicit corollaries to how the vineyard is traditionally farmed. Clones and soil remain largely unchanged, and for the sake of our taste buds I'm stoked about that. Earth and acid are dear friends of mine, and I think they're essential to any ballistic Syrah. BTW, how was Les Vins de Vienne's Cotes du Rhone? I think that's what I see lurking in the shadows there? Is it a Syrah-heavy blend, like Jamet's CdR? Or more typically Grenache? Very curious...I love lVdV's wines, but never had their CdR. Kindest regards, Jeff

 
At 9:30 AM, Anonymous Wooden Wine Racks said...

Excellent review, you really make the reader want to go out and try that wine... Which is what I think I'll do! Thanks.

 

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