Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a waxy, stony and restrained blend of marsanne and roussanne: a wine for the longer haul. It has gentle notes of lemon blossom on the nose in addition to hints of white peaches. The palate has impressive density and depth, showing lovely flavors of lemons and yellow grapefruit. Great length and detail and a chalky finish that holds long and even. Great wine: best from 2020 and for a decade after that.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There are two whites from Hermitage. I always find a Burgundian slant in the Chevalier de Sterimberg cuvée, and the 2014 Hermitage Blanc Le Chevalier de Sterimberg offers tons of minerality in a backwards, tight, medium to full-bodied package that emphasizes finesse and purity. Flint, gunpowder, white peach and white flowers all emerge from the glass of this chiseled, rich and layered effort that can be drunk anytime over the coming decade or more.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and well-focused, with creamed pear, yellow apple and melon flavors that glide along, carried by fresh butter, macadamia nut and honeysuckle notes. A flash of minerality through the finish adds length and detail.
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.