We tasted three wines from Crozes-Hermitage and one from Hermitage this last Thursday. These are wines, primarily made from Syrah from the northern part of the Rhone Valley in France.
The Rhone River Valley is in the south east of France and empties into the Mediterranean ocean. The Rhone Valley appellation follows the river from the ocean to about 150 miles north. This makes for substantial climate differences from north to south and therefore many different wines. In the Southern Rhone the red varietals are Grenache, Mourvedre along with some Syrah. In the Northern Rhone the red varietal is almost completely Syrah. In fact for AOC wines only Syrah is allowed, although a small amount of white wine (Marsanne or Roussanne) may be blended in.
You could write an entire book on the Rhone Valley and the many sub appellations so I am going to stick with just Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage. Hermitage is one of the premium ares of the northern Rhone. Not as well regarded as Cote-Rotie but still very good. Hermitage is the hill the town of Tain l’Hermitage is located just below. It got it’s name as a “hermit” lived there at one time. The 300 plus acres of grapes grow up the south west side of a steep granite hill and are divided into a number of named vineyards and produce over 700,000 bottles of wine each year. Hermitage is surrounded by Crozes-Hermitage so it cannot expand the area at all.
Crozes-Hermitage surronds Hermitage and is a much larger area with more variance in the quality of the wines. The wines are also Syrah with possibly a little Marsanne or Roussanne blended in. As I mentioned, we tasted three wines from Crozes-Hermitage and one from Hermitage. This was a blind tasting and the wines were not presented in any order.
The first wine we tasted was the 2007 Les Varroniers – Crozes-Hermitage, M. Chapoutier. The color was a medium ruby and the nose was floral with berries (raspberries) and earth. The flavor was complex dark fruit and leather and earth with moderate grippy tannins and good acidity. The finish was of medium length. This was very nice but expensive at $63.
Next we had the 2006 Hermitage – La Sizeranne, M.Chapoutier. This ruby/garnet colored wine had a somewhat closed nose of dark fruit and smoke. Another complex wine with smoke, leather and dark fruit flavors. Moderate grippy tannins and a medium length finish. An excellent wine but at $130 it is out of my price range.
Our third wine was the 2007 Crozes-Hermitage – Les Jalets, Paul Jaboulet Aine. This comes from a 6 hectare vineyard along with some purchased grapes. The wine was a ruby/garnet color like the previous wine. The nose was ripe baked fruit with smoke. The flavors were spicy dark fruit, black pepper and smoke. The mouth feel was light with moderate tannins and good acid. This was a little more affordable at $32.
The last and favorite wine of the group was the 2007 Crozes-Hermitage – Domaine de Thalaber, Paul Jaboulet Aine. The Domaine de Thalaber is often compared with the quality of Hermitage. This was also the favorite wine of the group. The color was ruby and the nose was fairly closed with a little dark fruit. The flavors were more austere with dark fruit but we felt there was plenty of potential for aging here. There just semed to be something in the background that would come out as the grippy tannins faded with age. It had a nice light mouth fell and a medium length finish with flavor. However, another expensive wine at $87.
These were all very good wines but the prices tend to be rather high. However, this piqued our interest and we will be looking for wines from this area at afordable prices to try.
