Herve Souhaut Syrah 2024 750ml

FRANCE : ARDÈCHE

ORGANIC : Syrah

LIGHT-BODIED, VIOLET, DARK CHERRY, BACON FAT, WET STONE, NEUTRAL OAK

Hervé Souhaut built Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet in 1993 on the granite slopes of Arlebosc, a village 30 minutes into the Ardèche hills from Saint-Joseph — further from the river than the main Rhône AOC estates, higher in elevation, and firmly in the IGP Ardèche zone where appellation rules don't apply. The vines — 30 to 80 years old, trained in gobelet on decomposed granite — give the wine a structural minerality that's harder to find at this price anywhere in the Northern Rhône corridor.

The 2024 is a beneficiary of a challenging vintage: the wettest year on record, with mildew pressure all season, then a dry August and cold north wind in September that concentrated whatever survived. The result is 12.5% ABV — low even for this domaine — with clean, bright acidity and a violet-and-cherry profile that drinks more like cool-climate Syrah than anything coming out of Cornas. Whole-cluster fermented, unfined, unfiltered, 25 mg/L SO₂ at bottling.

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