Graillot's top bottling has a refined and more resolved stance than the regular Crozes, with an array of sweet baking spices across sappy red plum and blackberry fruits, graphite and dark minerally accents. The palate delivers superb weight and succulent, swirling tannins. Peppery citrusy flavours dress the finish. Best from 2022.

The smaller production cuvée is the 2015 Crozes-Hermitage La Guiraude, which is richer and more powerful, as well as more opulent. Black raspberries, plums, tons of pepper and crushed rock-like minerality give way to a rich, full-bodied, concentrated Crozes-Hermitage that has a broad, expansive texture and ripe, yet present tannin. Brought up all in used barrels, it’s a blockbuster, plain and simple. Drink it anytime over the coming 10-15 years.

La Guiraude is simply a barrel selection of Graillot's Crozes Hermitage. The 2015 Crozes Hermitage la Guiraude is darker and meatier than the regular cuvée, offering notes of black cherries, soy sauce and roasted meat. It's full-bodied and dense, packed with flavor and richness, and long and velvety on the finish.- JC

Lurid ruby. Sexy, intensely perfumed aromas of dark fruit preserves, smoky minerals, exotic spices and olive paste. Silky and sweet on the palate, offering concentrated blackberry, bitter cherry and spicecake flavors enlivened by a jolt of smoky minerality. Shows excellent clarity and spicy lift on the seamless, strikingly persistent finish, which leaves a cherry liqueur note behind.- JR