2019 | Domaine Alain Graillot | Crozes-Hermitage La Guiraude

This phenomenal Crozes-Hermitage is produced at the hands of one of the region's best vignerons. Smoke-driven notes of licorice, red fruits, iron, red meats, and used leather ooze from the wine's complex palate.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 2019 Crozes Hermitage la Guiraude was bottled in March 2021, but it is just being sold this spring (2022). It's a full-bodied, rich effort, almost a bit over the top, with bold flavors of blackberry jam, uncluttered and unsoftened by much in the way of new oak. It's concentrated and intense, a bit chewy without being overly hard, with a long, velvety finish.

• Vinous: Glass-staining ruby. Cassis, cherry-cola, olive paste, exotic spices and pungent flowers on the highly expressive nose. Shows impressive depth as well as energy to its sweet black and blue fruit, allspice, salty olive and candied violet flavors, which take on a mineral aspect with air. Youthfully chewy tannins add grip to an impressively long and focused finish that emphatically repeats the floral and mineral notes. I've no doubt that this wine will reward patience, and my drinking window is probably overly conservative.

Producer Information

Domaine Alain Graillot is a well-regarded wine producer located in Crozes-Hermitage in the northern Rhône. Alain Graillot founded the domaine in 1985, releasing his first vintage from a rented vineyard. The domaine quickly rose to prominence and only three years after its establishment, Graillot purchased the vineyards he had been renting. Today, the domaine makes a range of predominantly Syrah-based wines in Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage, and Saint-Joseph. The estate is comprised of around 22 hectares (54 acres) of vineyard land planted mostly to Syrah with about 3 hectares (seven acres) planted to the white varieties Marsanne and Roussanne. The Syrah from Graillot's Crozes-Hermitage vineyard was planted in 1973 on well-draining soils made of sand, gravel, and alluvial stones. Graillot also owns two parcels planted to Syrah in Saint-Joseph and a tiny plot in Hermitage. The vineyards are all farmed organically and fruit is hand-harvested. After harvest, red grapes are whole-cluster fermented in lined concrete vats. The wines are aged one year in mostly old oak barrels and are lightly filtered but not fined. La Guiraude from Crozes-Hermitage is Alain Graillot's top wine and is only bottled in the best vintages. The total production of the domaine is around 10,000 cases annually. Alain Graillot retired in 2008 and his sons Antoine and Maxime (who also runs Domaine des Lises) took over the estate. Graillot passed in March 2022 but his legacy in the Crozes-Hermitage region will be an enduring one.

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