Domaine Alain et Raphael Crocia

This exciting new four-hectare domaine in Mercurey is the project of Raphaël Corcia; his father Alain is a négociant whose Southern Rhône selections will be familiar to readers of The Wine Advocate. Raphaël, after working with Anne Parent, has started out in the Côte Chalonnaise along ambitious lines: in organic conversion from the start, he's working with cover crops, doing all the canopy management by hand and employing only organic composts. In the winery, some whole bunches are retained and macerations are long.