2012 Delas Frères Hermitage Les Bessards

Bright purple. Highly expressive aromas and flavors of cherry compote, blackberry, smoky minerals and licorice, along with a sexy floral topnote. Displays impressive intensity to its black and blue fruit and violet pastille flavors, with juicy acidity providing lift. Finishes firmly tannic and strikingly long, with an emphatic jolt of minerality and excellent clarity.

Author: Josh Raynolds

Issue: March/April 2014

The star of the show is the 2012 Hermitage Les Bessards. Coming from the pure granite soils of the Les Bessards lieu-dit, on the western edge of the appellation, it's made from 100% Syrah and spent 16 months in 70% new French oak. It's an incredible wine that offers classic powdered rock-like minerality, loads of creme de cassis and black raspberry fruit, smoked meats, spice and dried-flower nuances. Complex, pure and perfumed, it's full-bodied and seamless on the palate, with fabulous density, ultra-fine tannin structure and impeccable overall balance. Give it 3-4 years in the cellar and drink it over the following two decades.

Author: Jeb Dunnuck