2022 Equis Equinoxe Crozes-Hermitage Rouge, Northern Rhone

The nose has an air of crushed nutshells from its oak, green olives, blackberry fruits, a hint of blood-iron. The palate is juicy and unrestrained, gives an immediate surge and sensation of plentiful black fruits, mild tannins in the wheel. Its length is steady, pretty resolute, and the finish well rounded. Its open features will please. From mid-2024. 

John Livingstone Learmonth Drink Rhône

Maxime Graillot and Thomas Schmittel’s nouveau-style Crozes 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. It is this collaboration that has seen the Equinoxe cuvée reach ever-greater heights. Roughly 80% destemmed, the wine is fermented in concrete tanks and large wooden tronconique vats (with a degree of carbonic maceration) and aged for nine months in the same vessel. This is gorgeously fleshy, forward, drink-it-straight-from-the-bottle kind of Crozes, with a touch more density than in 2021, but just as delicious.