Jean-Baptiste Souillard Crozes-Hermitage 2021

Jean-Baptiste Souillard Crozes-Hermitage is a granite-grown Crozes from the northern villages of Gervans and Larnage, made in a quantity of only three or four barrels a year.

Most of Crozes-Hermitage is flat land on alluvium and clay under thick beds of galets roulés; only about a tenth of the appellation sits on granite, and that granite lies in the north, where the hills are a severed fragment of the same Ardèche uplands that surface across the river as Hermitage. It is on those cold slopes around Gervans and Larnage that Souillard finds the purity and freshness he wants. This cuvée blends two Gervans parcels: one high on the slope on pure granite, which supplies the freshness, and one nearer the river on granite mixed with gravel. Fermentation is mostly whole-bunch in stainless steel, followed by fourteen months in old barriques of three to ten years. The style leans on structure, moderate alcohol and tension rather than the plusher fruit found further south.

Approachable now, better with two or three years, and sound for a decade. Serve at 16-18°C with grilled lamb cutlets, peppered steak or roast eggplant.

*Every effort is made to ensure the current vintage is accurate; however, variations can occur. If you are after a specific vintage, please contact us prior to ordering.