Maison Les Alexandrins Crozes-Hermitage Rouge - 2023

A partnership between two winegrowers from the Rhône Valley – Nicolas Jaboulet and Alexandre Caso – Maison les Alexandrins produces northern wines in a style at once contemporary and timeless, always from exceptional vineyards unearthed by Alexandre Caso, a specialist in the terroirs of the northern Rhône Valley. Classics with a twist, these wines and how they are aged and blended are guided by the quest for perfect harmony from a very young age. Part of our blend comes from the village of Beaumont Monteux which produces very generous, precise wines. This is rounded out with wine from a locality called Les Pends, near Mercurol, for depth and acidity.

The terroir comprises granite slopes to the north, similar to those in Hermitage, while the soil to the south is mainly alluvial with some terraces containing stones washed up by the Rhône. The vines are planted on slopes facing due south benefiting from the Mistral breeze. There is a great difference between the wines produced in the north or in the south of the appellation. Maison les Alexandrins’ Crozes-Hermitages mainly come from vines planted in the alluvial plain.

2023 was a year full of contrasts, which required great composure and experience to deal with the climatic hazards. The winter was mild followed by a wet spring then a summer oscillating between hailstorms and drought, before a complicated harvest period, between August 17 and September 20. A permanent risk of rain and unpredictable weather forecasts required us to constantly adapt our plans in order to harvest our grapes, of good quality and well concentrated in sugars, at their optimal phenolic maturity. At the end of the harvest, the meticulous work was more than rewarded: this very unusual vintage proved to be very promising, perfectly well balanced across all quality indicators. In the cellar, we are pleasantly surprised by the freshness of the whites. The terroirs resisted drought and offer magnificent balance. Low temperature fermentations helped preserve the aromatics. The reds required long macerations in order to extract all the essence of the vintage. The wines from the lowlands are crisp and delicate, the wines from the hills stand out for their density and the radiance brought by the granite. The aging period has now started, the wines will improve and the textures will slowly become more complex in the cellar.

An Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée in the northern Rhône Valley since 1937, the Crozes-Hermitage vineyard lies on the left bank of the Rhône, between the Hermitage and Saint-Joseph appellations. The earliest vines in this terroir were first grown in Roman times. Its name comes from two place names: “Crozes”, from the Latin crucem, which means “cross” or “crossroads”, and “Hermitage”, from the Latin heremitagium, meaning “hermitage” in English. It refers to the hill rising above the Rhône, on the summit of which the knight Henri Gaspard de Stérimberg settled to live as a hermit on his return from the Albigensian Crusade.

- Pre-fermentation cold maceration to develop the fruit.
- Maceration and fermentation for about 20 days with pumping over for the first few days and then punching down towards the end.
- Ageing in conical vats and demi-muids (60-litre capacity barrels) for 10 months.