Crozes Hermitage is the largest of the northern appellations covering 11 communes around Tain L‘Hermitage on the left bank of the river. The soils are richer than those of Hermitage producing less powerful fruity wines. The reds are fairly soft, supple and aromatic, the whites floral, fresh and bone dry.
Tasting notes: A dark smoky edge softens the black fruit, fig, tobacco and roasted chestnut notes. The long fleshy finish has excellent buried minerality.
Tasting notes: "Chave is a great name in the northern Rhône and while this isn't Gérard or Jean-Louis of Hermitage fame, it's surely one of the greatest modern expressions of Crozes-Hermitages, a red bursting with an aromatic peppery fragrance and seductively juice blackberry fruit opulence infused with camphor and tar and delightfully balanced. Anyone for partridge?"
Anthony Rose, Saturday Independent
"Rising star winemaker Yann Chave makes northern Rhône syrahs of quite astonishing purity. Here he's come up with a kind of distilled essence of pepper and blackberry with a silky texture that means it simply skates across the tongue."
