Winemaker Notes
Deep garnet red in color, with purple highlights, this wine offers aromas of tar, smoke, raspberry, blackberry, walnut and licorice. On the palate, it is complex, velvety and balanced, showing notes of licorice, tobacco and cocoa.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Another perfect wine, the 2015 Ermitage Le Pavillon comes from the Bessards lieu-dit on Hermitage, which is pure granite soils. I've said it before, but will say it again, this is unquestionably the finest, most singular vineyard for Syrah in the world. Cassis, graphite, smoked herbs, liquid rocks and violet aromas give way to a huge, concentrated, opulent and off-the-charts beauty that just hints at its ultimate potential. I wouldn’t think about opening bottles for at least a decade, after which it will keep for 4-5 decades.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Surely a 100-point wine in nearly any other context, the 2015 Ermitage le Pavillon is a terrific wine. Full-bodied and intense, it offers tremendous notes of crushed stone, mocha and ripe plum given shape and texture by powerful yet ripe tannins. The finish is nearly endless, oozing with essence of granite and balanced by bright acids. Wow.
Rating: 99+ -
Vinous
The exquisite 2015 Ermitage Le Pavillon walks onto the scene with pronounced tobacco, loamy earth, dried meat, graphite dust and dried red fruits. What makes this otherworldly Le Pavillon so compelling is the juxtaposition of hardcore intensity with an almost weightless, dancing presence on the palate, leaving a beguiling sense of freshness that compels another sip. Credit where credit is due, this is a breathtakingly beautiful expression of red Hermitage, unwinding with mind-boggling finesse and nuance on a long, resonant finish. The 2015 is now firmly within its prime drinking window.
-
James Suckling
Super, exotic fruit in the blood-orange, blood-plum and ripe-peach spectrum. A plethora of spices, coal smoke and a deep-set, dark, stony edge. Very succulent, powerful and long palate, where sheer, shimmery tannins glisten with deep, black-fruit flavor. From organically grown grapes.
-
Wine Spectator
Lovely, featuring dark, plush, velvety layers of warmed fig, boysenberry and black currant confiture notes, inlaid with loam and graphite accents. Offers ample singed mesquite toast and good drive through the finish. Very well-built, with ample depth and energy in reserve. Best from 2020 through 2040.
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.