#43 Wine Spectator Top 100 (2007 edition - 2005 vintage)
#68 Wine Spectator Top 100 (2005 edition - 2003 vintage)
#8 Wine Spectator Top 100 (2001 edition - 1999 vintage)
#14 Wine Spectator Top 100 (1998 edition - 1996 vintage)
#44 Wine Spectator Top 100 (1997 edition - 1995 vintage)
#9 Wine Spectator Top 100 (1996 edition - 1994 vintage)
 
93-Points by James Suckling & Robert Parker.
The base 2015 Crozes-Hermitage is one old-school beauty that just screams northern Rhône Syrah on the nose. Dark stony minerals and toasty biscuity notes with plenty of licorice, star anise, graphite and dark plum-soaked herbs. Full of interest. The palate has a neatly articulated frame of ripe and sturdy tannins, cradling a slightly tarry, ripe, dark plum-flavored palate. This has a saline, succulent resolve. Great wine!
 
Domaine Alain Graillot is a well-regarded wine producer located in Crozes-Hermitage in the northern Rhône. Alain Graillot founded the domaine in 1985, releasing his first vintage from a rented vineyard. The domaine quickly rose to prominence and only three years after its establishment, Graillot purchased the vineyards he had been renting.
Today, the domaine makes a range of predominantly Syrah-based wines in Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage, and Saint-Joseph. The estate is comprised of around 22 hectares (54 acres) of vineyard land planted mostly to Syrah with about 3 hectares (seven acres) planted to the white varieties Marsanne and Roussanne.
The Syrah from Graillot's Crozes-Hermitage vineyard was planted in 1973 on well-draining soils made of sand, gravel, and alluvial stones. Graillot also owns two parcels planted to Syrah in Saint-Joseph and a tiny plot in Hermitage.
The vineyards are all farmed organically and fruit is hand-harvested. After harvest, red grapes are whole-cluster fermented in lined concrete vats.
The wines are aged one year in mostly old oak barrels and are lightly filtered but not fined. La Guiraude from Crozes-Hermitage is Alain Graillot's top wine and is only bottled in the best vintages. The total production of the domaine is around 10,000 cases annually.
Alain Graillot retired in 2008 and his sons Antoine and Maxime (who also runs Domaine des Lises) took over the estate. Graillot passed in March 2022 but his legacy in the Crozes-Hermitage region will be an enduring one.