2018 René-Jean Dard and François Ribo, Crozes-Hermitage Rouge, Northern Rhone, France.
The deeply purple and fresh 2018 edition of René-Jean Dard’s and François Ribo’s iconic natural wine styled Crozes-Hermitage is another no pretense and rawly delicious Syrah, it is always a wine to be thrilled to drink, and this vintage is everything fans of this small producer enjoy, it shows a pure and transparent medium bodied palate of classic earthy character with crushed violets, dark boysenberry, damson plum, black currant and kirsch fruits along with tapenade, peppercorns, a light Syrah funk, damp earth, flinty camphor, cedar and tarry black licorice. Not as dense in form as the warmer and ripe 2015, 2016 and 2017s, this 2018 is an energetic, fun and easy quaffer that might be a more entertaining wine in its youth, while the fruit is vibrant and nicely juicy still before the rougher edges, rustic details and a hint volatile acidity get more pronounced, these elements are well integrated now and add to the Dard and Ribo Crozes’ charm and complexity in their current state. This is a wonderfully delicious Syrah that absolutely could not be from anywhere else, it wears its terroir as a badge of honor and I wouldn’t change a thing here, it is a wine I could literally could drink almost everyday. Dard and Ribo have become one of the labels I covet and have become one of my rotation from the Northern Rhone along with Alain and Maxime Graillot, G. Gilles, Lionnet, Yves Cuilleron and Louis Barruol’s Sant-Joseph and Crozes Saint-Cosme bottlings, to name a few.

René-Jean Dard and François Ribo, who produce some of the most sought after natural Syrahs, are famously media shy and hermit like vignerons from Mercurol, north of Valence, founded their tiny Northern Rhone estate in 1984 with a small cellar and micro parcels of vines and a focus on non intervention wines. These humble winemakers, that have adult like following, are mostly known for the their reasonably priced Crozes-Hermitage and Saint-Joseph reds, also do a micro bottling of their “unicorn” Hermitage, which I have never seen available in California, as well as a nouveau style early release C’est le Printemps Crozes-Hermitage, a wine I reviewed at the beginning of the Covid lockdown last March, and not too far off the quality of its bigger brother, plus a Blanc made from Marsanne and Roussanne. As reported in my earlier reviews, the Dard and Ribo Crozes-Hermitage vines are all from organic plots, farmed without chemicals, mostly hillside, set on iron rich red clay soils with gravel and alluvial stones scattered throughout the vines, which give these wines true terroir character and this 2018 vintage shows the classic markers that this region is known for. Made with native yeasts and whole bunches with minimal intervention, Dard and Ribo commonly don’t use any sulphites (added sulfur) at all, although they are not driven by extreme dogma and really just want to make wines they themselves would enjoy without doing anything or thought toward anyone else’s expectations. With the following they have these Dard and Ribo wines take a bit of chasing, but the hunt is well worth it and rewarding.
($40 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive

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