Description
Graillot Syrah is a collaboration between Bibendum importer, Robert Walters and Alain Graillot, one of France’s most respected wine growers from the leading Domaine in Crozes Hermitage. The Wine Spectator said of Graillot “ ..in the space of 17 years Alain Graillot has established a reputation for making his Crozes Hermitage the most sought after of the appellation. ..They are a special favourite with the most prestigious restaurants in France….”
Alain and Robert were very attracted by the idea of coming together to produce a sophisticated, restrained and linear expression of Australian Syrah from what they felt was a “special piece of dirt” in Heathcote Victoria. Alain Graillot, was recently described as “… the man who makes Syrah that tastes like Pinot…” His obsession with elegance shines through in his wines. The conditions of Alain’s involvement were simple: only if he was able to produce the highest quality wine with the kind of elegance for which he is renowned and that he likes to drink, would he be willing to put his name to this project. Initially fruit was sourced from across a single vineyard, yet now they work with only one plot (nicknamed ‘Clos Graillot’) an east-facing parcel of vines … the wines from this parcel consistently stood out for their fragrance, lacy fruit and elegant tannins. The vines are tended without any herbicides or pesticides. The grapes are handpicked, left to ferment without any yeast additions and are not fined or filtered. Almost no new oak has been used and sulphur is kept to a minimum (none was used at bottling for example).
It comes from an east-facing parcel of vines in Colbinabbin, Heathcote, that has been nicknamed ‘Clos Graillot’. This parcel has a shallow, eroded basalt top soil over a lime-rich subsoil that renders the PH neutral (very unusual for Australia and for Syrah in general). The vineyard is densely planted at over 5,500 vines per hectare. Again, very unusual. All the fruit is hand harvested and has a percentage of whole bunches that reflects the year (10% in 2010, 50% in 2012). Any destemming is very very gentle, in order to leave the maximum whole berries. Fermentation is with indigenous yeast. The Graillot Syrah 2010 exhibits all of the elegant structure, restraint and balance that Alain Graillot was looking for when he commenced this project. The nose is expansive with wild red and dark berries, smoke, ink, and some crushed fresh herbs on the nose, with an intensely mineral, graphite quality so typical of the Mt Camel Ranges. The palate is fine and pulpy, as much Pinot as Syrah, with lacy, textured raspberry, blackberry and lively, fresh acidity and ultra fine tannins. A very seductive texture with a lovely interplay of plump fruit and savoury notes. So there we have it: Alain Graillot’s first Syrah produced from Australian soil.
96 points James Halliday, .”Bright crimson-purple; a super-elegant medium-bodied syrah that includes 10% whole bunches, plum and black cherry filling the bouquet and palate alike. It has great line, length and balance, but the key to the wine is its texture, built on fine tannins and totally integrated oak. As it turned out, the barrel-by-barrel selection resulted in all the new oak wines going into Project No. 2.”
95 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front “… The wine takes some time to come around – it throws a challenging stink to begin – but as it unfurls, it draws you thoroughly in. Dryness, tension, gristles of spice, seeds, smoke and herbs. All these savoury notes come wrapped in boysenberried fruit flavour, though as you can probably tell – this wine does not live in a fruit-driven house. It’s all the things it wants to be: elegant, tremendously fine, unimpressed by the mainstream. Every time I put it in my mouth I could see long sharp lines in my mind, like a sketch. It’s all angles and lines, as opposed to a big rubber stamp of ink-filled flavour. It is what it is and uncompromisingly so, but it does not force its point of view. It’s a quiet but insistent syrah. It’ll either be your thing, or it won’t be.”
