About 10 years ago, you could not give away a bottle of St. Joseph; then Gonon showed up and now St. Joseph is hot, hot, hot and prices are going up. After tasting around a hundred wines in the Rhone this spring, I can say that Crozes-Hermitages is on a similar path as a group of young Turks including Etienne and Dorothee Chomarat are leading the charge to bring quality in Crozes to new, previously unheard of heights. A shout out to Lettie Teague at The Wall Street Journal who was out in front on this a few months ago. Enter Domaine de Chasselvin, with whom I tasted at the Salon des Vins in Tain l'Hermitage in late February; he's just one of those winemakers that floors you and I was absolutely floored by the endearing drink me now quality of these wines. They are deep, complex and very, very juicy wines. Oh are they juicy. Perky acidity, deep fruit and incredible use of oak make these utterly compelling wines. And because of my Direct to Consumer model, they are ridiculously inexpensive wines for the quality of what is in the bottle. Deep, mineral as all can be and complex like you cannot believe. Where has Chasselvin been all of my life?
I am proud to offer two wines of the Domaine de Chasselvin today. The 2011 Domaine de Chasselvin Crozes-Hermitage Cuvee "Cuvee Les Lievres" for as little as $24.99 a 4-pack. This drinks like a $35-40 bottle of Syrah. No doubt about it. This wine is their top of the line cuvee and it is just so good. Sizzling bacon, super amounts of spice, bloody Syrah fruit and lots of herbs on the nose, with a deep, rich yet very juicy palate and so much compelling minerality throughout. This is very purple wine as Crozes can get. This spends a year in oak barrels (5 years average age) and is the better for it. The tannins are super sweet and beautiful. This is picked at 35 hl/ha and fermented with indigenous yeasts which gives it tremendous site character. This is an amazing wine and something you want to drink over and over again as the acidity and juiciness make this bottle scarce within an hour of it being opened. It can be drunk now with a decant and will get better over the next 5-7 years.
I am also thrilled to offer one of the best value white rhones I have ever tasted, the 2013 Domaine de Chasselvin Crozes-Hermitage Blanc for as little as $21.99 on the 4-pack. The white here is just as brilliant as the red and they only make it years they deem it will be a success. It is 50 Marsanne and 50 Roussanne and is electric as they come. I will only offer white rhones that offer this electricity and intensity. This one has it in spades. This can age for up to 2-4 years but this is a drink me now style of white rhone with killer acids, exotic tropical fruits and persistent, intense minerality. I love this wine, it is so juicy, intense and what white rhone should be.
Crozes-Hermitage has had a complex history. Okay, not really. There was Alain Graillot, who is perfectly ok, albeit a bit expensive now, as the wine public and critics have anointed him, the guy for Crozes-Hermitage. There are many, many great growers in Crozes, especially over the last 4-6 years as young, up and coming growers cannot buy land in Cote-Rotie, Cornas and Hermitage easily as there is not much and what there is is very expensive. Crozes-Hermitages is becoming recognized as a hot new AOC where young, talented winemakers are making their bones.
Etienne and Dorothee Chomarat's first vintage was 2005 and he had it difficult as he was not the son of wine growers so he had to start from scratch. He studied in Burgundy and the Rhone Valley and he told me the winemaker he most wants to emulate and has influenced him the most is Yves Gangloff in Cote-Rotie. He has 10 hectares of Crozes evenly divided between white and red. Both are sensational. His whites are electric. They use the lutee raissonee method of vineyard work. They will spray only if necessary. This is the way many young growers work these days as they can't be 100% ideological, make great wine and run a business, all at the same time.
2011 Domaine de Chasselvin Crozes-Hermitage "Cuvee Les Lievres" - $26.99 btl ($99.96 4-pack)
2013 Domaine de Chasselvin Crozes-Hermitage Blanc - $23.99 btl ($87.96 4-pack)
Mix and Match on 4 bottles for DEEPEST DEAL
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