Winemaker Notes
This wine pairs well with cheese, white meats such as chicken with morilles mushrooms or quail with truffles, as well as fish such as grilled sea bass with citrus fruit.
Blend: 90% Marsanne, 10% Roussanne
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
A rich and texturally complex white Hermitage with some melted butter and butterscotch character. However, there's also stacks of dried citrus peel, plus some toast. Lots of power and concentration on the imposing palate. The stony finish is still firm and tightly wound, this having been made for long ageing. A pure marsanne that was entirely barrel fermented and matured with about a quarter of new oak. Drink or hold.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Looking at the two Hermitage Blancs, the 2021 Hermitage Domaine Des Tourettes Blanc is beautiful, with a classic bouquet of buttered quince, honeyed almonds, white flowers, and chalky minerality. Medium-bodied, perfectly balanced, and elegant, it brings terrific depth and concentration, especially given the vintage. It should evolve for 10-15 years.
-
Wine Spectator
A beguiling, complex white, with a beautiful display of fleshy peach, honeyed apple and apricot notes reined in by succulent acidity. Reveals chamomile, fennel and subtle shortbread on the lush yet focused palate. The well-meshed, long and clean finish is marked by smoke, flint and dried herbs. Delicious. Marsanne and Roussanne.
-
Decanter
Toasty vanilla and creamy ripe fruit on the nose. The palate is rich and opulent with weighty stone fruit concentration. Juicy acidity lingers on the lengthy finish.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
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.