Crozes Ermitage, Les Varonniers, Maison M. Chapoutier 2011

The 2011 Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonnieres which is a significant step up over the 2012) got a big Wow in my notes and is a brilliant Crozes-Hermitage. Cote Rotie-like with its perfumed floral, bacon fat, spice and olive-driven bouquet, this full-bodied, supple and downright sexy Syrah makes the most of the vintage. Enjoy it over the coming decade or so.

The dense purple-colored 2011 Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonnieres offers notes of black olives, tapenade, gun flint, smoky barbecue, charcuterie and red meats. Full-bodied, soft and round, it is ideal for drinking over the next 12-15 years. 

In November of this year, Michel Chapoutier finally made the cover of The Wine Spectator. The accompanying article said essentially the same things I had written about over twenty years ago. More importantly, I am thrilled that Chapoutier received this attention because it has long ... History will record that Michel Chapoutier is a revolutionary.

He is also a highly emotional man whose infectious love of primitive art, historic books, classical music and, of course, terroir and winemaking are seemingly impossible to harness. Michel Chapoutier was among the first in France to embrace the radical biodynamic agricultural teachings, for which he was initially criticized, but is now praised. He was also the first to print all his labels in Braille, something that cynics considered to be a gimmick, but ask the National Association for the Blind what they think. Coming from a famous family, but moving in a direction unlike any of its previous members, Michel Chapoutier is self-taught. What he has accomplished over the last two decades or more is one of the great wine stories of the modern era.