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Maxime Graillot and Thomas Schmittel’s youthful, early-drinking Crozes-Hermitage is sourced primarily from a mature, gravelly, organically farmed site in Pont-de-l’Isère. This site is owned and managed by a good friend and neighbour of the Graillot clan, and the vigneron and producer work closely together. This collaboration has seen the Equinoxe cuvée reach ever-greater heights. The fully destemmed grapes fermented in concrete tanks and large wooden tronconique vats (with a degree of carbonic maceration) and matured for nine months in the same vessel.
This is gorgeously fleshy, fruit-forward kind of Northern Rhone Syrah. A short, nine-day maceration has brought brightly flowing flavours of hedgerow fruits and red-cherry tang matched by nuances of wispy smoke and a snappy, refreshing structure.