Winemaker Notes
Along the Petite Pierrelle street, not far from the stream of Torras and the road where the blackbirds sing, lies the pretty Maison Bleue. Leaning against the Hermitage Hill, one of the most beautiful vineyards in the world, this small stone house with blue shutters was once a real haven of peace for their winegrowers: a place to work, rest and share located in the heart of a legendary terroir. Today, this house of winegrowers has regained a new youth. Winegrowers and horses take shelter from time to time. The Maison Bleue still serves as a shelter for their grapes to dry the straw wine when they produce it. This year, they will use its space to dry their plants for biodynamic preparations. A new life in the respect of traditions.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Beautiful cassis, truffle, damp earth, and ground pepper emerge from the 2019 Hermitage La Maison Bleue. Coming from the eastern portion of Hermitage Hill, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a rounded, opulent texture, building tannins, and a great finish. It's certainly in the same league (and style) as the 2018, and while it's going to drink nicely at a young age, my money is on it evolving gracefully for 20-25 years.
Rating: 94-96
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A superb Maison Bleue, the 2019 Hermitage La Maison Bleue seamlessly blends cherries and cassis into a purple mashup of fruit carried on rich, velvety waves of texture. Full-bodied and intense, it finishes complex and savory, adding notes of olive, clove and cedar on the long, luxurious finish. Already approachable, Best after 2023.
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James Suckling
Plenty of cloves and dried flowers with dark fruit, such as raspberries and blackberries. Some black truffle, too. Full-bodied with baked chocolate-pie and dark-fruit flavors. Full and warm at the end. Big, juicy wine. Give it a few years to come together.
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.