Only about six kilometers from the Northern Rhône Syrah Mecca that is Hermitage, the village of Chanos-Curson, home to Domaine des Entrefaux, is one of those 'next-door-neighbor' terroirs so beloved by value-hunters.
This is where you find $25 bottles of wine of such obvious breed it begs the question: Is that $100 wine from down the street really four times better than this one? Where Entrefaux’s stunning 2015 Crozes-Hermitage is concerned, my answer is an emphatic “no way.” I’ll go a step further and proclaim this one of the most memorable Northern Rhône reds I’ve had in some time. No doubt the exceptional 2015 vintage (one of the best in the last few decades) played a role here, but dig a little deeper into the estate’s story and you’ll see that this is no fluke. They’ve got the terroir, the talent, and the sustainable farming bonafides to deliver at the highest level. I’ve got a vivid taste memory, but this wine didn’t just stick with me—it haunts me, and I mean that in the best possible way. Its brooding, perfumed mix of dark fruits and meaty, smoky savor comes flooding back as I write this. This wine is great now, but will continue to blossom over the next decade into something unbelievably good. Smart buyers will buy as much as possible and store some away.
Father-son team Charles and François Tardy began estate-bottling their Domaine des Entrefaux Crozes-Hermitage in 1979, but the family’s vine-growing roots in the zone go back much further. Their estate vineyards extend over 21 hectares and have been farmed organically since the early 2000s (certification obtained in 2012), and their location in Chanos-Curson is key: This village is at the northern end of the vast “Les Chassis” plain, right where more gravelly ‘alluvial’ soils give way to clay and limestone terraces at higher elevations around Mercurol. The Tardy vineyards are situated in both terroirs, and the wines combine breadth and depth of fruit with mineral nerve and bright acidity. There’s a structural ‘uprightness’ to this 2015 that’s not often found in Crozes-Hermitage, which tends to be known more for chunkier, juicier, more softly contoured styles.
Fruit from the Tardys’ low-yielding, biodynamically farmed vines is hand-harvested, completely de-stemmed, and fermented in concrete vats on indigenous yeasts. Aging lasts about a year in a combination of cement tank and used French oak
foudres, and the result is a soulful, soil-expressive take on Syrah. It’s a saturated ruby-purple in the glass with violet reflections, with aromas that just scream northern Rhône: crushed blackberries, currants, plums, black pepper, olive, roasted meat, violets, lavender…all the classic markers are there, carrying over to a richly textured, medium-plus-bodied palate. You get all the ripeness of the hot and sunny 2015 vintage but an invigorating chord of freshness that lends the wine the kind of angles and posture you might expect from a Côte-Rôtie or Hermitage. It is deeply serious, with an everlasting finish punctuated by spice, wild herbs, and purple flowers. It should continue to evolve over the next 10+ years if kept well, but considering its price and already-accessible texture it’s going to be tough to stay away from it: Decant it about 30 minutes before service in large Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees, and get it next to something gamey and herb-rubbed/stuffed for best results. This is quintessential northern Rhône, through and through. Do not miss this!
