2018 Ermitage L'Ermite
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Tasting notes
Full bottle 1,391 g. Certified organic and biodynamic. Chapoutier's oldest Marsanne vines planted round the famous chapel at the top of the hill of Hermitage on granite. Barrel fermented slowly at 18 to 20 °C after a light cold-settling. Then matured on lees with regular stirring for 10 to 12 months. Pale honey colour. Very high toned with mineral notes (because of the granite?) with a note of meatiness rather than the obvious honey of its stablemates. Then massively intersting on the palate with more lift, spine and tension than de l'Orée and Le Méal 2018. It's even a bit racy. Really exciting wine! (JR)
Critic scores
Average Score
The Wine Advocate
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Inky ruby. Powerful, mineral-accented blueberry, kirsch, cassis and vanilla aromas are complemented by suggestions of succulent flowers, allspice, smoky bacon and incense. Coats the palate with alluringly sweet, finely etched black and blue fruit preserve, spicecake, mocha, olive paste and violet pastille flavors that are underscored by a vein of smoky minerality. Shows outstanding energy for its brawn and finishes impressively long, smoky and broad, with mounting tannins and gentle closing grip. 50% new oak.
In the same vein, the 2018 Ermitage L'Ermite has a pure, liquid rock-like mineral component as well as a tight, dense style in its crème de cassis, violets, acacia flowers, crushed stone, charcoal, and peppered game-like aromas and flavors. While this showed a more plush, sexy character from barrel (which led me to compare it to the Pavillon), it's a classic L'Ermite from bottle and is full-bodied, tight, concentrated, and structured. It's a magical Hermitage in the making yet won't hit maturity for 10-15 years and should keep for 30+.
An exotically perfumed bouquet evokes ripe black/blue fruits, Moroccan spice, potpourri and incense. Densely packed and impressively lively on the palate, offering intense blueberry, cassis, cherry compote and floral pastille flavors that firm up steadily on the back half. The floral and spice notes carry emphatically through an impressively long, youthfully tannic finish that leaves a smoky mineral flourish behind.