2016 Crozes Hermitage
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Tasting notes
Deep ruby. Lively aromas of fresh, spice-tinged dark berries and candied flowers pick up a suggestion of smoked meat as the wine opens up. Clean and nervy in style, offering energetic blackberry and bitter cherry flavors and a hint of cracked pepper. Finishes sweet, silky and long, leaving a note of violet pastille behind.
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Average Score
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The base Crozes is the 2016 Crozes Hermitage Domaine, which spent 12 months in used barrels. It's a ripe, smoky, meaty Syrah that gives up lots of black fruits, licorice, and violets aromas and flavors. Ripe, mouthfilling, and pleasure-bent, it has tons of charm and is one of the hidden gems in the vintage. I continue to love the wines of owner/winemaker Florent Viale. This tiny Crozes-Hermitage estate covers roughly 13 hectares in Crozes and has a tiny parcel in Hermitage. These are classic, traditional wines that are destemmed and brought up in demi-muids, with new oak kept to around 20% for most cuvées.
The medium-bodied 2016 Crozes Hermitage is a supple, easy-drinking Syrah that should be consumed over the next 5-6 years. It shows peppery, earthy aromas, plummy, dark-fruit flavors and lovely baking-spice notes on the lingering finish.
Quite light on the nose, but there is better citrus peel fruit concentration on the palate and reasonably full body with good persistence on the finish. The nose may well open further after six months. (RH)