Winemaker Notes
A very deep garnet red, almost black color. Aromas of black fruits with spices and ink overtones. Tannins are in the same time powerful and velvety. Smoky and pepper overtones express wonderfully the Syrah variety on granitic soil.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As usual, Chapoutier's 2018 Ermitage l'Ermite is a standout among standouts. Crushed stone, blueberries, even a touch of herb feature on the nose, while the full-bodied palate is cool and crunchy but also ripe and generous. It's rich and long, with a firm, granitic structure that should enable two-plus decades of aging. This has it all.
Range: 98-100 -
Jeb Dunnuck
Similar to the Le Pavillon with its liquid rock minerality, the 2018 Ermitage L’Ermite's inky purple/blue color is followed a gorgeous nose of blueberries, spring flowers, incense, cracked pepper, and spice. This flows to a more opulent, full-bodied, massively concentrated wine that has ripe, sweet tannins, no hard edges, and a huge finish. While the Pavillon has a more l'Ermite-like character in this vintage, the L'Ermite is more Pavillon-like with its beautiful opulence and decadence. I’ve no doubt both wines will show more classic characters this time next year from bottle.
Range: 97-99 -
Wine Spectator
This is really packed, with dark currant, blackberry and black cherry paste flavors that sail through, carried by racy and well-embedded acidity and flanked by an iron note, showing mineral, tobacco and singed alder hints through the finish. This has power in reserve, with the mouthwatering cut to carry it for two decades. Best from 2035 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.