Wine Last Sold on: November 18, 2012
Domaine Gilles Robin
Featured Wine:
2010 Crozes Hermitage Cuvée
| Varietal: | Syrah |
| Region: | France: Rhône |
| Avg. Price: | $44.00 |
| Wine Spies: | $32.00 |
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SUPERIOR WINE ALERT:
We only showcase wines that we love. While our emphasis is on quality first, every now and again we come across a real standout wine that rises above. When we do, we issue alerts like this one.
Mission Codename: South of Lyon
- Operative
- Agent Red
- Objective
- Send Agent Red to France, in search of a high-scoring French red, worthy of our Operatives exacting tastes.
- Mission Status
- Accomplished!
- Winemaker
- Gilles Robin
Final Assessment
This wine is a little shy, at first, and shows a short finish if you drink it upon opening. After the wine has had a chance to breathe, however, it really opens up and reveals more fruit and minerality.
Today’s 2010 Crozes Hermitage is a bright, rustic, terroir-driven Rhône with a fine structure, unique flavors on the palate and a clean finish. Pair this wine with a hard cheese plate, a grilled Portobello sandwich or a savory herbed pork.
Enjoy this 92 point wine now, or lay a few bottles down for the next few years.
Tasting Profile
Dark garnet from the heart, right out to a fine clear ring at the edge of the glass. Skinny, tightly-spaced legs move very slowly down the glass.
Strawberry, black cherry, subtle nutty vanilla, boysenberry and sweet cedar take the lead. As the wine opens up, it reveals far more fruit, including blackberry
Cool and light on entry, the wine becomes quickly grippy with a chalky texture, driven by the wine’s fine tannins. Bright acids drive fruit and chalky minerals to the far corners of the mouth.
Bright wild strawberry, Bing cherry and dried cranberry give way intriguing salty wet rock, dusty bramble bush, cranberry, espresso bean and subtle copper.
Allow this wine to breathe before you enjoy it and it will reward you with a very long finish. Fruits fade slowly, gradually giving way to earth and mineral components.
What the Winery Says
A serious Syrah wine with a perfect balance
This cuvee is elaborated solely with old vines from the major terroirs of the Estate (Rochas, Monico, Terres rouges). The blending is firstly based on Syrah grapes whose early maturity brings feminity and spices to this civilized Syrah wine. This cuvee includes another Syrah style, more rustic, with ripe fruits and elegant tannins, which blends ideally with the first one. Finally, a deeper Syrah style, red fruits gorged, completes ideally Albéric Bouvet which, during its ageing, will give the pleasure of a noble Syrah, deep with a unique character. The revelation of the nicest terroirs from Gilles Robin Estate and the blending of every Syrah style are key to this cuvee.
Accolades
92 Points, Wine Spectator
Wine Specs
Vintage: 2010
Alcohol: 13.50%
Food matching note: A food friendly wine, enjoy with most meats and cheeses
Country: France
Region: Northern Rhône
About the Winery
Domaine Gilles Robin is born from the passion of Louis Pasquion (great-grandfather of Gilles) for the vines. In 1920, he decided to buy a beautiful 1.24 hectares’ plot and to produce a wine for his own consumption. Wine amateur, he made a very good choice with this first parcel as the quality of the grapes is, at best years, equal to the beautiful Hermitage. This is the reason why Albéric Bouvet, great-grandfather of gilles, regularly received traders who wanted to get a portion of his production to elaborate their top cuvees. And in 1926, Albéric, also a wine lover, decided to slightly develop the estate and started to study the complexity of the Syrah grapes. He initiated new winemaking processes such as the vinification of the best grapes in demi-muids. Michel, Gilles’ father, was born in this environment of wine passionates and brought a fabulous dynamism. In 1965, he acquired 2-3 hectares and began a long work in the vineyards from replanting to developing the domain through the acquisitions of new terroirs. In 1996, when Gilles took over the estate, the total property was 10 hectares.
Today Gilles Robin Estate owns a 40 years old vineyard on average which has always been treated with a great respect of the nature. Ploughed soils, use of compost and organic fertilizer, 100% manual works, organic manure, always natural and respectful of the environment. Nothing has changed in the traditional methods used by the past generations. Owner of a 15 hectares’ property, the estate perpetuates the family tradition based on a constant research of the maximal complexity of Syrah grapes. Pursuing this goal, the estate uses Syrah grapes on the Crozes Hermitage Appelation and also on a magnificent terroir in Saint Joseph. Moreover, it also owns old vines of Marsanne grapes to get even further into this fabulous adventure in Rhone Valley.
