Good bright medium ruby. Subtly complex, granitic nose melds cassis, blueberry, smoky gunflint, pepper, tar, bitter chocolate, roast coffee, leather, game and animal fur. Wonderfully juicy but currently rather folded in on itself. But this has brilliant acidity, precision and penetration on the palate. Almost painfully intense and wonderfully long and gripping on the back. Very firm and structured but not at all dry. This will need a good decade of additional cellaring.

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100% Syrah, partial de-stemming, vinified in mixture of oak, stainless steel and cement vats, matured in mixture of new and (mainly) used oak casks and large old oak.A complex mix of aromas: spice, liquorice and aromatic meatiness. Fine, dry, tight and beautifully balanced. Youthful but somehow already complete. The dry finish gives freshness instead of drying the palate. There’s plenty of oaky spice too but it does not dominate.  (JH)

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Tasting through the component parts of the 2001 Hermitage reveals what should be an outstanding wine with a Burgundian-like finesse. The most elegant component emanates from Les Beaumes and Pelia, and the denser, thicker wines from Meal, l'Ermite, and Bessards. The wine will possess a dense ruby/purple color in addition to plenty of sweet cassis fruit, medium body, noticeably high tannin, and gorgeous purity as well as symmetry. It will be built along the lines of the 1996 rather than the 2000 or 1999.

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A brute right now, with a wall of bacony, coffee-tinged toast separating you from the core of blackberry and raspberry fruit. Great richness and texture here, with notes of tar, minerals, saddle leather and cocoa rippling through the finish. Mouthwatering acidity balances it all. 2,415 cases made.

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