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And all occur on various exposures, with some on flat land and some on treacherously steep hills. One of the most diverse appellations in France’s Northern Rhône Valley, Crozes-Hermitage is also its biggest. It’s all an extension of Hermitage, the famous hill of the region.The criticism of Crozes-Hermitage comes in the form of the vastness of its terroir and the often ordinary nature of its Syrah. With its brittle granite and schist-like shards, nearly void of topsoil thanks to gravity, it may be one of the most singular wines from the entire appellation and surely one of its most recognizable when tasted.
The soil types and hill structures differ greatly from the rest of the appellation. Stephane Rousset’s underground status as one of the best producers in the Northern Rhone Valley is about to end. More recently they decided to go it alone and develop more ambitious wines.On family-oriented days you might find donkey rides or a vegetable sculptor who turns aubergines into penguins. The result in Crozes-Hermitage and Hermitage were these opposing geological settings. As a side note, Rousset has a fabulous collection of single parcel Crozes-Hermitage vineyards that I’ve encouraged him to bottle alone. Hopefully this will come to fruition someday.His whites made from Marsanne are mostly aged in stainless steel tanks, with a small proportion of French oak barrels. On one end you have the ancient granite bedrock, and on the other, multi-layered alluvial deposits largely brought in by the Rhône and Isère Rivers; their torrent clash over the years is evident on the south and eastern zones of Crozes-Hermitage and Hermitage, and of course the Rhône is responsible for breaking away the western section of Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage from the massif across the river.Granite, one of the darlings rock types of the Northern Rhône Valley, is all too often misattributed as the mythical legendary soil of the hill of Hermitage, since it makes up only a small proportion of this famous hill’s western flank—perhaps around 15%. The winters are brisk but not extreme, except for the penetrating winds that can catch you off guard. The climate in the area behind Hermitage tends toward warm days, but most of his vineyards are close to the river gorge and a plentiful supply of forests, so they air out and cool down quickly at nightfall.
He and his lovely wife, Isabelle, are gentle and hospitable people. It is run by two families, the Gueurys and the Davicos.
Here they are on moderately steep to very steep granite terraces of the river’s left bank, above the Rhône and tucked back behind the behemoth hill of Hermitage.Rousset’s collection of vineyards is where the Rhône River swings west before banking back toward the east, exposing granite rocks from the Massif Central and yielding wines of texture and perfume from what we more commonly associate with Cornas and St. Joseph. His fastidiousness is obvious, even when he’s The red wine vinifications are made with fully destemmed grapes and the use of 225-to-500-liter French oak barrels, with a minimum of new oak mixed in, and only when barrels in disrepair need replacement. His whites, composed of Marsanne, grow mostly on loess, a fine-grained crystalline soil blown in by the wind and resulting in deep topsoil deposits above granite bedrock under many of his vineyards by the river. Rousset’s differ quite a lot compared to those on the fully exposed Chassis plain, or even up into Mercurol, home to some of appellations limestone terraces toward the east, not too far from the eastern flank of Hermitage. Located on an unassuming and unmarked road, a first glance inside instantly reveals Stéphane’s attention to detail. In the three original appellations the soil for Syrah is largely granitic, but with many small variations of igneous and metamorphic stones, as is stated in the case of Les Picaudières. Our biodynamic wines are two opposite extremes. They respect the soil and nature, and minimize the use of treatments to copper and sulfur—both essential in all European vineyards whether they are in organic, biodynamic and/or a “natural” winegrowing culture.In the cellar it’s pretty straightforward. Certain producers represent specific areas principally on certain terroirs: like Alain Graillot and his wines from the Chassis plain, composed principally of river alluvium, similar to the lowest vineyards of Hermitage; or Domaine du Colombier’s Crozes-Hermitage wines from Mercurol on a mix of alluvium with limestone deposits similar to the hill’s eastern side; or Stephane Rousset’s all grown on granite or metamorphic bedrock, similar to the western end of Hermitage and its famous granite parcel, Les Bessards. They are indeed To the north and behind Hermitage, on the same side of the Rhône River, is the setting for Stéphane Rousset’s vineyards. (There’s white too, but to a much lesser degree.) The Rhône River also contributes to moderating the temperatures, but likely less than in the past, as hydroelectric dams now slow the water current. The first vintage I tasted of Rousset’s wines was 2009, and I was completely smitten. The likelihood is that their vines are close to home, thus revealing at least a starting point to explore further. The Domaine Terre de Mistral celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2013 with a piece of excellent news: it was one of the three main winners of the Prix national de l'oenotourisme (the National Wine Tourism Prize), an award jointly administered by the French Ministries of Agriculture, Tourism and Culture. A stroll through their vineyards reveals an extremely high level of sustainable farming from this virtual two-man team. We especially liked Nadia, a brand-new top-of-the-range white wine named, romantically, after the wife of the chief wine-maker, Serge.The Terre de Mistral continues to focus on what the French call So you should check the weather forecast first if you are set on eating al fresco. Read Snooth user reviews of domaine rousset wine, see user ratings, compare prices and buy domaine rousset wine online thorugh one of the largest selections of wine merchants online Stéphane Rousset’s wines are built on solid craftsmanship and a clear concession of his voice to that of his terroir. They combine a very balanced sweetness and at the same time acidity.