2021 Crôzes-Hermitage, Vieilles Vignes de Gervans, Georges Lelektsoglou, Rhône

2021 Crôzes-Hermitage, Vieilles Vignes de Gervans, Georges Lelektsoglou, Rhône

Product: 20218068785
Prices start from £47.00 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2021 Crôzes-Hermitage, Vieilles Vignes de Gervans, Georges Lelektsoglou, Rhône

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Description

The 2021 Crozes-Hermitage is charming and up-front, with pretty red fruits, spring flowers, and spice notes in a medium-bodied, elegant, very juicy and seamless package. It's balanced and has fine tannins as well as lots of charm. There are only three barrels made, and it's going to drink nicely right out of the gate.

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (December 2022)

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Critics reviews

Jeb Dunnuck87-89/100

The 2021 Crozes-Hermitage is charming and up-front, with pretty red fruits, spring flowers, and spice notes in a medium-bodied, elegant, very juicy and seamless package. It's balanced and has fine tannins as well as lots of charm. There are only three barrels made, and it's going to drink nicely right out of the gate.

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (December 2022)

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About this WINE

Georges Lelektsoglou

Georges Lelektsoglou

Originally from Greece, Georges Lelektsoglou is part of the furniture in and around the Rhône Valley. He once worked as a Courtier de Campagne, looking for bulk wines for the likes of Guigal and Chapoutier, when he started making his own personal selections of wines to celebrate the birth of his eldest son in 1983. His wife's family was part of the co-operative and owned a historic vineyard in Larnage. Along with the Cave de Tain, they produced a quality Crozes-Hermitage in ’83 that was a great commercial success. When he found exceptional bottles of wines, Georges also offered them to some of France’s most celebrated, Michelin-starred restaurants, including Troisgros, Chapel, Bocuse and Gagnaire.

He opened up his first cellar in ’88 and started to select personal cuvées in small quantities, looking for old, well-looked after vines and always working with trusted friends. He makes a Crozes-Hermitage and a selection of Côte-Rôtie in tiny volumes. Georges was a distributor of Château Rayas when he found a unique, tiny plot of 100-year-old Grenache vines very close to Rayas’ vineyards – in the exceptional Pignan lieu-dit of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. When he’s not in the cellar, you will find Georges in his treasure-trove of a wine shop near Tain l’Hermitage.

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Crozes-Hermitage

Crozes-Hermitage

Crôzes-Hermitage is the largest AC in the Northern Rhône, producing 10 times the volume of Hermitage and over half of the Northern Rhône’s total production.  The appellation was created in 1937 with the single commune of Crozes, which is situated northeast of the hill of Hermitage. Wines are now produced from 11 different communes.

Its vineyards surround the hill of Hermitage on equally hilly terrain where richer soils produce wines that are softer and fruitier, with a more forward style. The Syrah variety is used, but legally Marsanne and Roussanne can be added to the blend (up to 15 percent). In the north, the commune of Gervans is similar to Les Bessards in Hermitage, with granite soil producing tannic reds that need time to evolve.

While in Larnage, in the south, the heavy clay soils give the wine breadth and depth (albeit they can sometimes be flabby), the soils to the east of river on higher ground comprise stony, sandy and clay limestone, making them ideal for the production of white wines.

The best reds are produced on the plateaus of Les Chassis and Les Sept Chenin, which straddles the infamous N7 road to the south of Tain. Here the land is covered with cailloux roulés, which resemble the small pudding stones fond in Châteauneuf.

The wines can vary hugely in quality and style, and the majority of the reds tend to be fairly light. Many of the wines are made by a variation of the macération carbonique technique, bottled no later than one year after the vinification. The best producers, however, use traditional fermentation techniques.

There are small amounts of white wine made from Marsanne and Roussanne, accounting for approximately 10 percent of the appellation. The finest whites are produced from around Mercurol.

Recommended producers: Paul JabouletChapoutierColombier, Ferraton
Best vintages: 2006, 2005, 2004, 1999, 1995, 1990, 1989, 1988,

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Syrah/Shiraz

Syrah/Shiraz

A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.

It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.

South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.

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When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.