Our notes:

Maxime Graillot no longer stands in the shadow of his celebrated father. Today he has the senior winemaking role at Domaine Alain Graillot and is carving out his own place in the history of the Northern Rhône. Naturally he is best known for the outstanding wines that bear his name and it is those that we offer here. The latest releases from Maxime’s own vineyards compare very favourably with those from his father’s, ignoring obvious stylistic differences. Displaying an intensity and minerality as though they were a birthright, the leitmotif in Maxime’s wines is juiciness, freshness and poise. It’s a quality that is setting them well on the way to becoming regional benchmarks, if they are not already.
Maxime’s Crozes ‘des Lises’ comes from a single vineyard near the village of Beaumont-Monteux, in the most south-easterly part of Crozes Hermitage in a lieux dit called ‘les Pichéres’. Here the soils are full of gravel and alluvial stones, low in clay and fast draining. This lends itself to refined, aromatic Syrah with pronounced minerality, much like his father’s plot on Le Chěnes Verts to the north. Planted in the 1980s, this prime site was farmed ‘conventionally’ before being purchased by Maxime and nursed back to health and it is now managed organically. Max keeps it healthy by regular ploughing and by the application of carefully prepared organic composts. The grapes are hand harvested and yields are low. He de-stems the majority of the fruit for his own wines, typically retaining only between 10%-20%. He says there will be more and more whole bunches once the vineyard is at peak performance.

Although the wines below come from different Northern Rhône vintages, they are wines which marry the pure fruit of modernity and the terroir expression of the artisanal approach. They are for lovers of sublime, cool climate Syrah and lovers of quality wine in general. It’s a wine style particularly close to our hearts and, of course, we recommend the wines below very highly.