2021 Hermitage Le Chevalier de Sterimberg
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Tasting notes
Tasted from a 10-cl tube sample. The samples were prepared for Tiny Wine using Coravin’s Vinitas technology system for filling single-tube samples without any oxygen ingress. 100% Marsanne (usually has Roussanne in it but it was lost in the frost). Aged in a mix of concrete eggs and demi-muids. Certified organic. Smells of hawthorn blossom – sweet floral and a hint of cat pee! Tense, chalky, sage and just-underripe greengage. I’d wait, and wait. (TC)
Critic scores
Average Score
Tom Parker MW, jancisrobinson.com
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
The 2021 Hermitage Le Chevalier de Sterimberg Blanc is 100% Marsanne, quite possibly for the first time ever. Marked by scents of crushed stone, citrus, pineapple and white peach, it's medium-bodied and definitely on the austere side. It's like it wants to be a CFE from Trimbach or something. It does show excellent freshness and length, so maybe it just needs a decade or more.
The 2021 Hermitage Blanc Le Chevalier de Sterimberg is a varietal Marsanne using grapes from up to 35-year-old vines. Swirling the glass stirs up fragrant spring blossom, white peach, quince, lemon flesh and green apple aromatics. Offering crisp freshness and an elegant mouthfeel, the 2021 ends with good drive on the sapid finale.
NB name change from this vintage (no longer Paul Jaboulet Aîné). 100% Marsanne. Harvested 16–24 August. Cool, wet vintage. Alcoholic fermentation mainly in concrete eggs plus a few demi-muids, with further ageing in the same vessels with fine-lees stirring. TA 4.09 g/l, pH 3.3. Certified AB organic and ‘cultivated according to biodynamic principles since 2018’. Preserved lemons, beeswax and tinned peaches bring a complex, lightly savoury and enticing nose. The palate is initially broad, with succulent orchard fruit, hints of lanolin and more waxy layers. Delicately spiced with a weightless, long finish and a vibrant acid hit. (TP)