I bought a few bottles of both of his Crozes bottlings when I decided I wanted to cellar and focus on N and S Rhone wines only. And in the north I wanted to cellar from Croze and St Joe mostly because of how affordable wines are from these two appellations. And I wanted to only cellar wines from the best producers in these two regions. Determining the best in St Joe isn't so easy or black and white, but near as I could tell Alain Graillot is the king of Crozes. So here I am. I've had his 2005 regular Crozes twice already and a couple of the 2004. I can without a doubt say the regular 2005 is much more approachable than the La Guiraude. I figured as much but I wanted to try one any way. The color is typical N Rhone syrah. Dark and inky purple. No real red or black tones, mostly purple ink. Nose reminds me of a typical N Rhone syrah. Scents of spice and pepper and that typical lean, dry fruit, syrah aroma. The palate is very grippy with a lot of tight tannins and a great dose of acidity. I'm basing this TN off of the second day because the first day wasn't something I'd want to try and post about. This is like a very unapproachable version of the regular Croze bottle. Really, at this stage, it doesn't show much at all. Give it 10 or 15 years and it will be a beauty Crozes. Not a Hermitage or CR, but a prototypical Graillot Crozes.
Bryan
