Gilles Robin Crozes-Hermitage Papillon à Léonie et Lucie 2024

Produced from vines aged less than 20 years old. The wine is de-stemmed and matured in stainless steel tanks and is designed for earlier drinking for it’s freshness and perfumed black raspberry fruit with anise and spice notes that linger for ages. For enjoying in its youth, great in the warmer seasons.

The Crozes-Hermitage Papillon red, is an immediate, well fruited wine for young consumption, carrying floral and spiced interest: ideal with steak-frites or spaghetti Bolognese, for example. John Livingstone-Learmonth, drinkrhone.com

The Robin family have grown grapes in Crozes-Hermitage for generations, but until 1995 they were always sold to the local cooperative in Tain l'Hermitage. Today, Gilles estate bottles his entire production and consistently produces some of the very best wines of this appellation. Gilles has just 15 hectares, however most of those vineyards are fully mature at more than 40 years old.

The estate has several plots of land in the favoured ‘Les Chassis’ district just south of the Hermitage hill. The soils in this area consist of large amounts of smooth pudding stones ‘galets’ and red clay from the route the Rhône river once flowed. These richer clay based soils give a wine that is typically rounder and more generous than from some other areas of the appellation.

Owing to the large amount of mature old vines at this estate most of the wine produced is of the premium “Alberic Bouvet” cuvee. This cuvee is produced from vines averaging 40 years age. Picking is done by hand and yields are kept low at around 38 hl/ha. In the ripest years a small percentage of stems are allowed in the ferment and the wine is aged in barriques (and increasingly in larger 450 litre barrels) for about 15 months with about 15% new barrels used each year.