Domaine Clusel-Roch is on the super-short list of Northern Rhône producers who consistently deliver some of the most gorgeously aromatic, cellar-worthy Côte-Rôties imaginable. So how has this microscopic domaine become such a sought-after global sensation? Well, it didn’t happen overnight. Farming has been a part of their history for generations and they’ve been doing it organically since the 1990s—a time when few others were. Further, with such a small amount of land in Côte-Rôtie, they’ve mastered their world-famous terroir and extracted every nuanced complexity by way of minimalist winemaking and extra-long barrel aging. Their wines are old-school to the max with a wonderful dose of polish and depth—it’s a ‘Grand Cru’ wine in our book. “Les Schistes” hails from three different family-owned lieux-dits totaling four hectares, all of which are mature Syrah vines that were grafted from the best plantings in “Les Grandes Places.” The Syrah in the bottle isn’t “just any Syrah” either: Locally known as Sérine, it’s a low-yielding clone that the family has used since the beginning. 

It’s ultra-classic, savory, and intensely aromatic with slow, brooding power that will keep building with bottle age. Remember, it’s a young gun that is still building its arsenal, but it’s obvious to see how grand this bottle is right now. With a three-hour decant today, it erupts with intense blue and purple fruits, smoked meat, olive tapenade, wild herbs, a touch of black pepper, and dominating fresh flower blossoms—violets, most notably. Still, it’s filled to the brim with ripe, dark fruits: blackberries, plums, currants, black raspberry, huckleberry. Amazingly, this isn’t an overly tannic brute right now: Because of Clusel Roch’s expertise, a great vintage, and mature, top-performing vines, “Les Schistes” is a silky, beautifully layered Syrah that has decades of aging potential ahead of it.