The 2005 Crozes Hermitage le Grand Courtil comes all from sedimentary soils and offers terrific complexity and elegance, as well as medium-bodied richness, beautifully polished tannin and a great finish. Revealing fully mature notes of dried herbs, dried flowers and black raspberries, it has considerable polish and will keep for another decade.

The 2005 Crozes-Hermitage Le Grand Courtil has notes of licorice, roasted herbs, meat juices, and plenty of black cherries in a tannic, medium-bodied, crisp style. The tannins in the finish are strong and intense, in keeping with the vintage, so patience will be required. I am not sure if this wine has the fruit to stand up to those tannins over the long haul. As I said last year, Michel Chapoutier is expending considerable amounts of money and energy to upgrade the wines of Ferraton. He still controls the biodynamic farming of many of their vineyards, and is totally responsible for the negociant blends that are put together. His emphasis is on terroir, purity of fruit, and earlier bottling to preserve the wine’s character. I thought the 2006s were perhaps his strongest overall vintage since he has been running this enterprise. In approaching the Ferraton wines, one has to realize the lower end is the negociant range, which include their generic Cotes du Rhones, the Crozes-Hermitage La Matiniere, the St.-Joseph, and the Hermitage Les Miaux, and then of course, the single-vineyard wines such as the St.-Joseph Les Oliviers, Ermitage Les Dionnieres, Ermitage Le Meal, and Crozes-Hermitage Le Grand Courtil.Importer: A French Paradox, Peoria, IL; tel. (309) 682-8994