2015 Ermitage L'Ermite

Lastly, the 2015 Ermitage L’Ermite offers that classic, searing granite/ozone-laced bouquet of crème de cassis, liquid rocks, graphite, and lead pencil. More tight, focused and backward than the Pavillon, it's no less impressive and is pure, full-bodied, massively concentrated and focused. It’s another monumental wine from Michel Chapoutier that needs to be forgotten for 8-10 years and will have 40-50 years of prime drinking. Enough can’t be said about the quality coming from this estate and these 2015s are certainly a match for what was achieved in 2009 and 2010. I wish every reader could taste these majestic, magical wines. Enough can’t be said about the quality coming from the estate of Michel Chapoutier. Taking over the domaine from his father in the late 1980s (his first vintage was 1989), Michel quickly moved the estate completely to bio-dynamic farming as well as building a new, state of the art winery located just outside of Tain l’Hermitage. These are classic, traditionally made wines that are never acidified (or chaptalized), are brought up mostly in demi-muids (with plenty of used oak), and bottled unfined and unfiltered. He also continues to grow the brand (this is easily one of the largest tastings I do every year from a single producer) and has added two new Côte Rôties in 2015, the Quatrain and Neve cuvees. The Quatrain is reserved for grapes that didn’t make it into the selection parcellaire releases, and the Neve comes from a single parcel in the northern part of the appellation. Both are impressive wines, although I don’t envy anyone trying to explain the full portfolio to buyers in the market. In addition, while it’s easy to focus on the top cuvées from this estate, the portfolio is packed with incredible values at just about every price point. These reviews focus on the 2015 and 2016 vintages, with all the 2015s tasted out of bottle and the majority of the 2016s still resting in barrel. The 2015 vintage is a monumental one for this estate and matches (and in a few cases, eclipses) what was accomplished in 2009 and 2010. These are ripe, concentrated, structured wines that are going to demand cellar time. In contrast, the 2016s are more elegant and silky, with terrific purity of fruit. They don’t have the sheer grandeur of fruit found in the 2015s, yet are seriously concentrated and have no shortage of tannins and structure.

My pick of Chapoutier's 2015 Ermitage bottlings on this occasion was the 2015 Ermitage l'Ermite. It just edged out the other wines for its incredible purity of cassis fruit, indelible intensity and massive concentration. Size doesn't matter if the other elements aren't there, but this wine is complex, balanced and long, a true tour de force. Hints of crushed stone, peppery spice and grilled meat are in the background right now, partially submerged under the waves of fruit and ripe tannins, so give it a decade or so to shed some of that puppy fat and reveal its true nature.

Glass-staining purple. An explosively perfumed bouquet evokes ripe dark fruit, potpourri and olive, and a smoky mineral flourish gains power with air. Shows superb depth as well as energy on the palate, offering sweet blackberry and cherry liqueur flavors sharpened by a jolt of tangy acidity. In a distinctly rich yet animated style, featuring superb focus, youthfully chewy tannins and a long, dark-fruit-dominated finish.