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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 very closely together. It is this collaboration that has seen the Equinoxe cuvée reach ever-greater heights. Roughly 80% de-stemmed, 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.
Although Graillot tells us that he wants this to be a “hyper-light wine”, it is never light in the negative sense of the word. There is too much intensity for that. Instead, it’s an exuberantly fruity, delicious, drink-it-straight-from-the-bottle kind of Crozes with agile tannins and plenty of acidity for focus. Leaping out of the glass, the newly minted 2021 is flush with perfumes of berries, sweet spice, earth and an enticing mineral accent. On the palate, it’s bright, refreshing, and dripping with svelte red fruits mopped up by the crunchy acidity and twist of salinity. It closes long and vibrant with a lick of piquant spice and anise. It’s a delicious reminder of how close the Northern Rhône is to Beaujolais—and not just in terms of distance.