2015 Crozes Hermitage Les Varonniers

More Hermitage than Crozes-Hermitage, the 2015 Crozes Ermitage Les Varonniers comes from a cool, west facing parcel and the same soils as the Bessards lieu-dit on Hermitage. Burning embers, ozone, saddle leather, beef blood and a liqueur of rocks bouquet gives way to a full-bodied, silky, awesome Crozes-Hermitage that's undoubtedly the greatest vintage ever for this cuvée. Give it 4-5 years of cellaring and it will keep for another two decades. Bravo! Enough can’t be said about the quality coming from the estate of Michel Chapoutier. Taking over the domaine from his father in the late 1980s (his first vintage was 1989), Michel quickly moved the estate completely to bio-dynamic farming as well as building a new, state of the art winery located just outside of Tain l’Hermitage. These are classic, traditionally made wines that are never acidified (or chaptalized), are brought up mostly in demi-muids (with plenty of used oak), and bottled unfined and unfiltered. He also continues to grow the brand (this is easily one of the largest tastings I do every year from a single producer) and has added two new Côte Rôties in 2015, the Quatrain and Neve cuvees. The Quatrain is reserved for grapes that didn’t make it into the selection parcellaire releases, and the Neve comes from a single parcel in the northern part of the appellation. Both are impressive wines, although I don’t envy anyone trying to explain the full portfolio to buyers in the market. In addition, while it’s easy to focus on the top cuvées from this estate, the portfolio is packed with incredible values at just about every price point. These reviews focus on the 2015 and 2016 vintages, with all the 2015s tasted out of bottle and the majority of the 2016s still resting in barrel. The 2015 vintage is a monumental one for this estate and matches (and in a few cases, eclipses) what was accomplished in 2009 and 2010. These are ripe, concentrated, structured wines that are going to demand cellar time. In contrast, the 2016s are more elegant and silky, with terrific purity of fruit. They don’t have the sheer grandeur of fruit found in the 2015s, yet are seriously concentrated and have no shortage of tannins and structure.

The 2015 Crozes Hermitage les Varonniers is full-bodied and rich, but it's already almost enjoyable to drink, thanks to its bold layers of cassis, mulberries and spice. It's close to being jammy but is held back by a delicious savory edge of black olive on the velvety finish.

Brilliant violet. A deeply perfumed, smoke-tinged bouquet evokes ripe dark berries, cola and violet, backed by a subtle mineral nuance. Sappy black and blue fruit and floral pastille flavors show very good clarity and are supported by a core of juicy acidity. Closes smoky and long, with building tannins and the mineral note adding urgency.