2000 Ermitage Le Pavillon
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
Now fully mature, the 2000 Ermitage Le Pavillon reveals a healthy ruby hue as well a quintessential perfume of red and black fruits, scorched earth, leather, graphite, and roasted herbs, and if this beauty doesn't make you think Hermitage, I don't know what will. Its notes all carry over to the palate, where the wine has shed its baby fat and today shows a still full-bodied, concentrated style with a liquid granite-like sense of minerality, flawless overall balance, mostly resolved tannins, and a still layered core of sweet fruit. The overall impression here is of a fabulous Hermitage in its prime. I love it today and see no need to delay gratification, but well-stored bottles should easily evolve for another 15-20 years.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
Matured in 50% new oak casks for 18-20 months, bottled without fining or filtration . Bright, dark crimson. Exotically masculine Hermitage perfumes – not just the leather but the cologne too! Great array of flavours in an as-yet-unintegrated whole. Well done… Opulent fireworks notes. (JR)
Year in and year out, one of the three greatest Hermitages made is Chapoutier’s Le Pavillon. The black/blue-colored 2000 Ermitage Le Pavillon is brilliant out of bottle. Notes of graphite, ink, licorice, creme de cassis, and minerals jump from the glass of this syrup of Hermitage. Full-bodied, unctuously-textured, gorgeously rich, spectacularly concentrated and long, it is a tour de force in winemaking. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2040. (I disagree, but Michel Chapoutier feels his finest three Le Pavillons to date have been 1991 followed by 1995 and 2000. I retain a preference for the glorious trilogy of 1989, 1990, and 1991.) These uncompromising offerings from a young genius are not meant for consumers who want something to drink immediately. They are the essence of bio-dynamically farmed vineyard sites cropped incredibly low, given extended fermentations with indigenous yeasts, and rarely touched until they go into the bottle unfined and unfiltered. In most vintages, the wines are not even racked off their lees, which only adds to their natural style. These are truly remarkable wines, but for most readers, patience is the operative rule as they generally need a good 8-10 years to strut their stuff. Once moribund, over the last 12 years, this firm has become one of the reference points for nearly all the Rhone Valley appellations since the brash yet immensely talented Michel Chapoutier took over in the late eighties. The single vineyard offerings are as good as Rhone Valley wines can be. Moreover, Chapoutier continues to upgrade the quality of those wines offered in more significant quantities than the 500 or so cases each of the single vineyard offerings. Importer: Paterno Imports, Lake Bluff, IL; tel. (847) 604-8900