Maxime Graillot Crozes Hermitage “Equinoxe” 2006

Maxime Graillot, son of Crozes Hermitage legend, Alain Graillot has purchased his own vineyard and is now making his own wines.

Maxime’s vineyard is near the village of Beaumont-Monteux in the most south-easterly part of Crozes Hermitage in a lieux dit (place/vineyard name) called les Pichéres. It is a cooler, later harvesting site than his father’s in Les Chene Verts. The soils here are full of gravel and alluvial stones and are (like Alain’s vineyards) fast draining and low in clay. This lends itself to refined, aromatic Syrah with pronounced spice and minerality.

Planted in the 80’s and 90’s, the vineyard was in a dilapidated state when Maxime acquired it in 2004. He has converted the site to organic viticulture (herbicide and pesticide usage had previously been prescriptive), trellising has been upgraded and dead vines replaced. The soils had been heavily compacted by machine harvesting so a program of careful ploughing has commenced. The grapes are now hand harvested and yields are a fraction of what they were previously. In short, Maxime has pulled out all stops to revive the site and to harvest fruit that will produce intense wines that speak of their origins.

While Alain is always there in the background to offer advice, Maxime has a winemaking approach that differs in significant ways to his father. For example, there are no stems in the ferment and the fermenting wine hits the barrel a tad earlier.

So how different are the final wines? There are some differences. Maxime’s wines show more fruit and seductiveness in the flush of youth. And yet our overall impression was of similarities. As both Alain and Maxime pointed out to us in separate conversations, they both ultimately seek to produce wines of finesse and intensity that clearly reflect their origins (remember when Syrah was associated with finesse?). Everything else is tinkering at the edges.

For those who want more winemaking detail: typically the crop is fully destemmed and receives a pre-fermentation cooling for three to five days. Vinification lasts three weeks, with twice-daily cap punching. Ageing is for about a year to 18 months in a mix of used Burgundian casks from domaines such as Dujac, Arlot, and Romanée-Conti – a bit over a third 1 year-old casks, the rest a mix of 3 to 5 year-old casks.

Crozes Hermitage “Equinoxe” 2006 is one of two cuvees of Crozes currently being released by Maxime each year. The Equinoxe is an early bottling made for early drinking. Maxime calls the Equinoxe his “spring wine”. It is a deliciously pure, spicy, red-fruited expression of Syrah. It should be consumed over the next year in all its youthful glory.