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 closely together. This collaboration has seen the Equinoxe cuvée reach ever-greater heights. The fully destemmed grapes fermented in concrete tanks and large wooden tronconique vats (with a degree of carbonic maceration) and matured for nine months in the same vessel.
This is gorgeously fleshy, forward, drink-it-straight-from-the-bottle kind of Crozes. A short, nine-day maceration has brought brightly flowing flavours of raspberry, anise and black cherry matched by nuances of wispy smoke and a snappy, refreshing structure.