Coming from a single north westerly facing, cold and windy vineyard in Villedieu, Domaine des Escaravailles Les Hautes Granges bottling is 90% Syrah from 30 year old vines and 10% Grenache from 60 year old vines and sees up to a year in barrique. Hand harvested, meticulously sorted, 100% destemmed and bottled unfined and unfiltered. In a good year 5,000 bottles are produced.

All in all, these are fantastic wines that break the stereotype of muddled, overripe Syrah from the south of France with beautiful purity, lifted aromatics, lush textures and plenty of flesh to go along with their unique characters.  While there’s certainly similarities between these wines, each has a very unique character with the 2007 taking the fruit bomb status, the 2006 showing stunning purity and edge, the 2005 a structured tannic and streamlined profile and the 2004 showing rich fruit with nice complexity.  All cellar worthy, interesting wines!

2007 Domaine des Escaravailles Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix Les Hautes des Granges
The viscous, glass staining 2007 Domaine des Escaravailles Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix Les Hautes des Granges possesses a stunning deep purple, completely opaque color along with blockbuster aromatics of earthy blackberry jam, cassis, earth, licorice and chocolate aromas. While this is aged in new oak, there’s not a hint of wood showing and in the mouth, it’s full bodied with gobs of sweet fruit, glycerol and a soft, lush texture. Despite the size, the purity is outstanding, it’s well balanced and has nice acidity keeping things interesting and fresh. It has sound structure hiding under the fruit but I can’t see any reason to wait. (92/93 pts.)

2006 Domaine des Escaravailles Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix Les Hautes des Granges
The 2006 Domaine des Escaravailles Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix Les Hautes des Granges offers up a rich, deep bouquet of blackberry and cassis fruit intermixed with new oak, graphite and chocolate aromas. Beautifully pure and clean, this has nice precision, freshness and cut to the aromas and in the mouth, it’s full bodied with decadent fruit, impressive balance and a long finish with ripe tannins. This shows more precision and obvious oak than the 2007 and I’d drink it over the next 10 or so  years. (93 pts.)

2005 Domaine des Escaravailles Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix Les Hautes des Granges
Very northern rhone’esk on the nose, the 2005 Domaine des Escaravailles Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix Les Hautes des Granges possesses fresh, crisp aromatics of raspberries, leather, minerals and fresh cut flowers.  There’s subtle spice and graphite notes mixed in and this shows nice complexity paired with rich fruit.  This leads into a medium to full bodied wine that has a streamlined, smooth texture, crisp acids and a solid, tannic underlying structure.  Firms up on the finish and while approachable now, is a candidate for short term cellaring. (91 pts.)

2004 Domaine des Escaravailles Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix Les Hautes des Granges
Roasted herbs, blackberry, charcoal, bakers chocolate and a big dollop of dirt come jumping out of the glass of 2004 Domaine des Escaravailles Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix Les Hautes des Granges and as this sat in the glass, it gained both complexity (cigar, smoke and meaty notes) and fruit intensity.  The palate is medium to full bodied with stunning fruit, a rich, mouth filling texture and a long finish where fine grained tannins show up.  While this lacks the freshness of the younger vintages, it shows impressive complexity, solid fruit and plenty of character.  Drink over the next 10+ years.
(90 pts.)

The Wines of Domaine des Escaravailles – Part 1, Rasteau
The Wines of Domaine des Escaravailles – Part 3, Héritage 1924
The Wines of Domaine des Escaravailles – Part 4

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