Quintessance-S Crozes Hermitage 2020

This wine has a deep ruby colour and a similarly deep nose, full of strawberry, red plum, bramble and rose petal with a cushion of cedar smoke. On the palate, hints of tomato leaf, smooth tannins, strawberry, plum, and fennel come through. A paragon of Julien’s techniques and ability to find ripe acid below this hot French sun. The palate is full of fruit that develops through the mouth and leaves a dried herbaceous finish.

Best served between 18-20°C. Can seamlessly accompany an entire meal, especially duck and game.

Julien Dreveton learnt the trade in Sur La Roche, and applied it in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, before reconverting his family's ancestral land to vines. Julien is a one man band, single-handedly pruning in spring to machine harvesting in Autumn, to winemaking, bottling and selling. In his own words, "My two great-grandfathers cultivated the vines in the early 1900s... Both were called "Louis". Today, it is by thinking of them of course that I cultivate my small plots of vines. By taking care of their land, as my grandfather and father did, by working it in a reasoned way, to pass it serenely on to future generations... All this family love, built around the land and vineyards, you will hopefully find it in my first cuvées of Crozes-Hermitage...".

The seventh generation on this land, Julien named the vineyard after his two great-grandfathers, both called Louis, who cultivated the vines in the early 1900s.

In 2016 Julien assumed his grandfather’s five and a half acre plot of apricot trees. The twenty-three year old quickly got to work cultivating his small plots of vines. His ethos of “taking care of their land, as my grandfather and father did, by working it in a reasoned way, to pass it serenely on to future generations...” is reflected in the quality of his first cuvées and that quality has already created a financially stable business (very impressive considering vines take five years before producing their first vintage!).

1* (Up & Coming)

Julien’s approach to sustainably viticulture is a pragmatic one, in the summer’s heat of Crozes-Hermitage, Julien has found organic viticulture helps maintain more acid in the grapes which translates to beautiful freshness in the glass. He turns the soil twice a year and will complete conversion to organic certification by 2024. Finding few organic challenges in the naturally disease resistant hot and windy appellation, he credits his grandfather's apricot trees for keeping the soil healthy and fertilised.

Red | Still | 75cl | 12.5% ABV | Contains Sulphites

Production: 2000 bottles/year.

As listed by a dozen of Michelin starred restaurants in France including: - Montelimar : Domaine du Colombier 1* - Charmes-Sur-Rhône : Le Carré D’Alethius 1* - St. Donat : Chartron 1* - Granges-Les-Beaumont : Les Cèdres 2* - Lyon : Têtedoie 2* - Fuisse : L’O Des Vignes 1* - Prenois : Auberge de la charme 1*

Cellaring: will continue to develop for 8-10 years.

Vinification: Pyramidal concrete tank fermentation and hot maceration for 3 weeks, then aged in demi-muids (French Oak) for 10 months.

• Organic - Undergoing Conversion & Certification