2016 M. Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonniers
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Tasting notes
On another level, the inky colored 2016 Crozes-Ermitage Les Varonniers comes from the granite hillside just beside Hermitage hill and is more Hermitage than Crozes. It has a huge nose of currants, smoked earth, graphite, pepper, and cured meats. This carries to a rich, powerful Crozes that has a real sense of minerality, beautiful mid-palate depth, ripe, present tannins, and a great, great finish. Aged 18 months in 20% new French oak (a mix of Burgundy barrels and demi-muids), it has two decades or more of longevity ahead of it. The estate of firebrand Michel Chapoutier continues to operate on all cylinders, and these latest 2016 and 2017 releases are world class for this address. The 2017 whites show the gradual change toward a more reductive style of winemaking, and the wines at times have an almost Burgundian feel in their minerality, acidity, and texture. Nevertheless, they’re fabulously concentrated and rich and will need 2-4 years of cellaring. The 2016 whites showed beautifully, and I prefer those to the 2017s. The majority of the 2017 reds were tasted as barrel samples. This is a ripe, sexy, expressive vintage for the Northern Rhône, and this shows in the wines. The 2017s don’t appear to have the density of the more blockbuster styled 2015s, yet they have expressive, sunny characters that will deliver loads of charm. The 2016s having slightly more density and cooler-climate styled aromatics, yet are nevertheless some of the richest, sexiest wines in the vintage. In addition to the frightfully expensive top-tier cuvées, don’t miss the value releases from this estate. These wines max out the QPR scale and are great introductions into the wines of Chapoutier as well as the Rhône Valley.
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Grown on the western-facing portion of the Hermitage hill, on the same underlying granite as les Bessards, the 2016 Crozes Hermitage les Varonniers makes a mockery of most Crozes-Hermitages, coming across more like Hermitage itself. Aged in a mix of barriques and demi-muids, it frames cassis fruit with hints of pencil shavings and crushed stone. Full-bodied and concentrated, it shows granite-like reserve in its powerful expression and long, dusty finish.
Deep violet. An expansive, highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe cherry and boysenberry, and suave mocha and floral accents build in the glass. Broad and weighty but lively as well, offering sweet dark fruit, spicecake and violet pastille flavors supported by a spine of smoky minerality. Rounded tannins build steadily on the finish, which displays excellent clarity and spice-tinged persistence.
Barrel sample. From rocky granite soil. Succulent black fruit with violet perfume and dark, bitter notes on the palate – juniper, black olive. Very firm tannin on the palate – this is Crozes-Hermitage taking itself very seriously. Very heady. (RH)