The luxury cuvee, and to my taste the finest Crozes-Hermitage produced, is Chapoutier’s 500-case Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonniers. The dense ruby/purple-colored 2000 reveals notes of roasted coffee, dried Provencal herbs, sweet cassis, and leather. The wood component is more noticeable in this cuvee, but it is full-bodied, ripe, concentrated, and impressive. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2016.
These uncompromising offerings from a young genius are not meant for consumers who want something to drink immediately. They are the essence of bio-dynamically farmed vineyard sites cropped incredibly low, given extended fermentations with indigenous yeasts, and rarely touched until they go into the bottle unfined and unfiltered. In most vintages, the wines are not even racked off their lees, which only adds to their natural style. These are truly remarkable wines, but for most readers, patience is the operative rule as they generally need a good 8-10 years to strut their stuff.
Once moribund, over the last 12 years, this firm has become one of the reference points for nearly all the Rhone Valley appellations since the brash yet immensely talented Michel Chapoutier took over in the late eighties. The single vineyard offerings are as good as Rhone Valley wines can be. Moreover, Chapoutier continues to upgrade the quality of those wines offered in more significant quantities than the 500 or so cases each of the single vineyard offerings.
Importer: Paterno Imports, Lake Bluff, IL; tel. (847) 604-8900
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