Delas Hermitage Domaine des Tourettes 2013
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Pair this wine with rare or medium-cooked games, marinated meats, and spicy stews. We recommend opening this bottle between one and three hours before drinking.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the gems in the vintage is the 2013 Hermitage Domaine des Tourettes, which comes from both the Bessards and Grandes Vignes lieux-dits on Hermitage Hill. Completely destemmed, then vinified in stainless steel and concrete tanks, the wine is aged 18 months in 30% new French oak; it offers terrific notes of dark fruits, graphite and ample minerality in a full-bodied, layered, ripe profile. It’s more approachable than the Les Bessards, yet will still have three decades of longevity.
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James Suckling
This has a refined, fragrant and very composed character with inherent aromatic spices and a stony edge, in addition to licorice and some star anise. The fruits are in the dried-plum and dried-cherry spectrum, but this also hints at plenty of cloves, cardamom and pepper. The palate's succulent, powerful, even and really finely layered. The tannins are most definitely a feature now, and this has plenty of ageing potential. Enjoy the dark-plum and black-cherry finish. Best from 2020 and for a decade after that. Fom 100% granitic soils.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe for the vintage, with a fleshy core of plum compote and raspberry coulis flavors, backed by ample cocoa-edged grip that melds through the loam- and anise-accented finish. Best from 2017 through 2023.
Other Vintages
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Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
One of the smallest and most important Syrah regions of northern Rhone, Hermitage is practically one single south-facing slope of crushed granite, thinly covered with varied, yet well-charted soil types. Many climats (well identified parcels) exist within Hermitage and while some smaller producers make single climat Syrahs, some larger ones blend to make one balanced expression of the appellation.
Though the AC regulations allow the addition of up to 15% white grapes to a red Hermitage, in practice it is usually made from Syrah alone. Winemaking is pretty traditional—or you might say historic—with hot fermentations and aging in older barrels of various sizes. The best wines, characterized by deep, dense and sexy flavors of black fruit, cocoa, licorice and tobacco, have massive textures and a solid 10-20 years aging potential.
The region of Hermitage is totally enclosed; the only place it could go really is to literally fall down its own hill into the city of Tain or the Rhone River. Soil erosion is a problem and terraces exist alongside the hill in order to keep the earth in place. Crozes-Hermitage encloses the region entirely to its north and south.
While Hermitage seems synonymous with some of the best Syrah on the planet, actually about one third of the wine produced here comes from white grapes. The full, lush and robust Marsanne or the less common, but almost more charming, Roussanne create wonderful whites in which the best have great potential for aging, like the reds.