Winemaker Notes
This cuvée has a deep ruby red color, with garnet tinges. The nose shows aromas of stewed black fruit dominated by cassis and blackberries. As it opens up, it reveals hints of leather and game. The palate is perfectly balanced, with a combination of suave delicacy and considerable volume. The finish is lifted by flavors of very ripe black cherries.
This wine pairs well with a variety of grilled meats.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A smaller production release, the 2019 Crozes-Hermitage Le Clos hails from the Les Saviots lieu-dit and was brought up mostly in neutral oak. It's a denser, more closed wine offering serious aromatics of ripe black and blue fruits, scorched earth, graphite, and saddle leather, with an almost Hermitage-like sense of meatiness and power. Full-bodied and concentrated on the palate, with notable purity, it has some background oak, ripe tannins, good freshness, and a great finish. Rating: 94+
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Vinous
A deeply perfumed bouquet evokes ripe black/blue fruits, olive and potpourri, and a mineral element adds lift. Sappy and penetrating on the palate, offering broad-shouldered boysenberry, bitter cherry and candied violet flavors that are given spine and lift by a core of juicy acidity. Shows sharp focus on the penetrating finish, where dusty, slow-building tannins add gentle grip and focus.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Crozes Hermitage le Clos managed to escape hail damage but remains an intense, concentrated effort. Hints of violets and garrigue appear on the nose alongside cassis and black cherries, while the full-bodied palate is supple, leading into a long, licorice-tinged finish. Drink it over the next decade or so. Tasted twice (once blind), with consistent notes.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and refined, with a smoldering bay and cast iron hints along the edges of a core of dark cherry and plum preserve notes. Juicy, yet restrained, iron-tinged finish. Drink now through 2030.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
A long and narrow valley producing flavorful red, white, and rosé wines, the Rhône is bisected by the river of the same name and split into two distinct sub-regions—north and south. While a handful of grape varieties span the entire length of the Rhône valley, there are significant differences between the two zones in climate and geography as well as the style and quantity of Rhône wines produced. The Northern Rhône, with its continental climate and steep hillside vineyards, is responsible for a mere 5% or less of the greater region’s total output. The Southern Rhône has a much more Mediterranean climate, the aggressive, chilly Mistral wind and plentiful fragrant wild herbs known collectively as ‘garrigue.’
In the Northern Rhône, the only permitted red variety is Syrah, which in the appellations of St.-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage, Cornas and Côte-Rôtie, it produces velvety black-fruit driven, savory, peppery red wines often with telltale notes of olive, game and smoke. Full-bodied, perfumed whites are made from Viognier in Condrieu and Château-Grillet, while elsewhere only Marsanne and Roussanne are used, with the former providing body and texture and the latter lending nervy acidity. The wines of the Southern Rhône are typically blends, with the reds often based on Grenache and balanced by Syrah, Mourvèdre, and an assortment of other varieties. All three northern white varieties are used here, as well as Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Bourbelenc and more. The best known sub-regions of the Southern Rhône are the reliable, wallet-friendly Côtes du Rhône and the esteemed Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Others include Gigondas, Vacqueyras and the rosé-only appellation Tavel.