2023 Domaine du Chêne Vert Crozes-Hermitage Rouge

Composed entirely of organically grown Syrah and made with minimal intervention in all the right ways, the 2023 Domaine du Chêne Vert Crozes-Hermitage Rouge undergoes native yeast fermentation with 33% whole clusters and is aged mostly in used barrels. It’s one of those Eureka wines where the cost-to-pleasure ratio is in the sweet spot. Thanks in part to partial whole-cluster fermentation, the wine bursts with vibrant fruit—plums, wild strawberries, cherries, toasty brown sugar, violets, and rooibos tea. Delightful and effortless, it’s an absolute joy to drink with or without food.

Such a dense and beautifully fruited nose, there's a real density there with super ripe black cherry, rich and ripe cassis, some of that mysterious blue fruit, and then just a bouquet of purple flowers. It's pleasant and inviting in a powerful kind of way, not so much seductive as persuasive and I am nodding idly along with what it's spinning. The palate, especially after all this time to open, is so lush and generous with this kind of lightly floral perfumed super bright and ripe fruit. Super ripe raspberry, cherry, stewed strawberry, and then the spicy and almost tarry earth kicks in to make the ending more savory but still with all this lush fruit right around the edges. This is just such a pretty and purely fruited bottle, I want to have it with some lamb or maybe something else with a little game to it, that fruit just popping against the game and balancing everything out, just like a fruit reduction would. It's just that good.