Etienne Becheras 2022 Crozes-Hermitage AOC

Vineyard Notes: From south-southwest facing gently sloped parcels in Mercurol. Soils are loess and river stones. Vines are Cordon trained and have an average age of 15 years.

Winemaking Notes: After total destemming and a 1-3 day cold soak, wine ferments spontaneously in concrete vats. Cuvaison lasts 18-22 days. Elevage is 12 months in 600l demi muids.

Tasting Notes: This is, as Hemingway said about the best of writing, a ‘true’ wine. There can be no wine more expressive of this appellation and of the Syrah of the northern Rhone than this splendid bottle of joy. A wine of sublime concentration that gives definition to the term ‘goût de sèvre’, this is satisfying, pure and flat-out delicious. It bristles with fresh acidity at the outset, then with aeration settles in to display classic northern Rhone meaty fruit. Becheras is a truly worthy successor to the great Michel Ferraton—a domaine we represented in its prime—his cave only missing the scrawled poetry that graced the walls of Ferraton’s cellar!