Domaine Gilles Robin

The Robin family has grown grapes in Crozes-Hermitage for four generations, beginning with a 1.27-hectare plot bought by Gilles's great-grandfather Louis Pasquion in 1920. Almost all of it went to the cooperative at Tain l'Hermitage until Gilles took over from his father Michel in 1996 and bottled the first wines under his own label.

The estate was then about ten hectares, nearly all in Crozes. It now covers twenty-two, with prime holdings added in Hermitage, Cornas, Saint-Joseph and Saint-Péray: Saint-Épine and a site high above Tournon at 450 metres, Saint-Pierre at Cornas at 400 metres, Les Vercandières at the foot of Les Bessards for the red Hermitage and Les Diognières, pure Marsanne, for the white. Many of these parcels are half a hectare to a hectare. The average vine age across the estate is now over forty years.

Gilles began farming organically in 2012 and the estate is certified. Fruit is hand-picked and chilled before de-stemming, then fermented on natural yeasts under temperature control, with an optical sorting table in use since 2013 and extractions kept gentle and slow, often over thirty days. The whites are split evenly between tank and barrel; the reds are raised mostly in 500- and 600-litre barrels, all from Mont Gillard oak, and in clay amphorae. About 8,000 dozen a year, from vines planted at just 2,800 to the hectare.