2015 Saint Cosme, Crozes-Hermitage, Northern Rhone, France.
The Louis Barruol Saint Cosme Crozes Hermitage is as terroir driven and pure as it get for Northern Rhone Syrah with exceptional detail and seductive laters of earthy spicy elements with leather, salty stone, violets and a heady mix of black, blue and red fruits on the medium weighted palate. While known and famous for his estate Grenache based wines of Gigondas, Barruol has a gifted talent for making great value Syrah wines, like this one especially, but also, it’s a little revealed fact that his basic Cotes du Rhone is 100% Syrah, and his Sant-Joseph and Cote-Rotie bottlings are awesome. This wine nails down the classic Northern Rhone profile with boysenberry, blueberry, damson plum and light cassis notes leading the way on the medium full bodied palate along with graphite/camphor, iron, anise, a touch of game/leather and faint cedar all lifted by peppercorns and ripe tannins. Saint Cosme makes some absolutely thrilling wines, and this one is really good and highlights the vintage’s richness and warm feel to perfection, while still being traditional and balanced in form and style. Look for this Crozes-Hermitage to gain and evolve over the next 3 to 5 years in bottle, though even drinking nicely right now, you can open this one without much quilt.
($27 Est.) 92+ Points, grapelive
