Darnaud Crozes Hermitage Les Trois Chenes 2016

Emmanuel Darnaud 2011 Les Trois Chênes Crozes-Hermitage | 13.5% | 100% Syrah | Bacon meet berries. Berries this is bacon. Fast friends and what chums! Tangy plums, black pepper, meat pan juices and wild pastureland set quite the stage for this telling example of Crozes-Hermitage the gifted lower slopes beneath Hermitage in France’s Northern Rhône. Lovely in that it is fulsome, fragrant and bold without needing time in the bottle to tame the tannins or relax. Certainly not the bruiser that its elder brother from 2010 was at this age, this has a trimmer physique but is every bit as complex and perhaps still more sophisticated than Darnaud’s Mise en Bouche –the primary glimpse on Crozes-Hermitage from vines of a younger stature. Better yet is how appetizing its juicy structure washes over the palate keeping lift to this mouthful of Syrah. On the finish lifts a fragrant garrigue akin to wild lavender and sappy rosemary which is perfect to put all the tangy berried fruit into relief. On tasting this I dream of pairing it with roasted spring lamb, peppered skirt steak off the grill, a piping hot moussaka… this is a wine for food to be sure but every bit as fit to be the glass at the end of a long day as I am enjoying it now.
Wine review by Nicholas Livingston, April 29, 2014 (Fruit)

Food Pairings

Winged beasties with dark meat like duck, goose, squab, and griffins. Hooved game. Roasted meats.