Wine of the week: a northern Rhône to savour

2020 Crozes-Hermitage, Domaine des Lises, Equis, Northern Rhône, France

(£27.95, yapp.co.uk, 01747 860423)

It is interesting how rapid change is in the wine world as vintages tick by with alarming and seemingly ever-increasing frequency. But while – through one lens – the evolution of our trade is dynamic and exciting, some things never change. In 1988, my first trip to Paris, under my own steam with monies saved from my first job in wine, was lifechanging. It was here that I tasted some of the cornerstone wines that form the base on which all of the flavours from all of my tastings ever since have been assembled.

One such enlightening bottle was the first-ever release of Alain Graillot’s super-cuvée Crozes-Hermitage La Guiraude. To my naive mind, it was the definitive expression of the syrah grape, bursting with blackberries, iodine, cracked pepper and faint wood smoke. I have followed Graillot ever since, and the other day a flavour hit me so hard it transported me back to the first time I tasted a Graillot syrah.

Domaine des Lises is the brainchild of Maxime Graillot, who joined his father, Alain, at Domaine Graillot in 2004. The same year, Maxime launched Domaine des Lises with his longtime friend Thomas Schmittel. This Domaine is a 6.5-hectare plot of 30-year-old vines planted on free-draining gravel soils southeast of the Graillot HQ. The grapes mature later than those on the family estate, making them extra juicy and exotic. Intense, bright and utterly delicious, this is a must-buy wine.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).