2015 Hermitage Ligne de Crete
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Tasting notes
From one of the all-time great vintages for the Northern Rhône, the 2015 Hermitage Les Grandes Vignes reveals a ruby/plum color as well as a tight, closed, full-bodied style that's going to benefit from bottle age. Offering notes of darker currants, loamy soil, new leather, graphite, and obvious minerality, it's nicely balanced, has ripe tannins, and outstanding length. Certainly a more elegant, classic 2015, I suspect it’s in a more closed phase (as are many 2015s today) since it wasn't until the second day that this really opened up. Do your best to hide bottles for another 4-5 years, and it's going to deliver the goods over the following two decades.
Critic scores
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Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
Since the wine was finally released with a name and label, I've taken the opportunity to update readers on Delas's 2015 Hermitage Ligne de Crete Les Grandes Vignes. Unfortunately, it's in a bit of a quiescent phase on the nose, but determined swimming coaxes out hints of crushed stone, pencil shavings, machine oil and blueberries. In the mouth, it's considerably more dramatic, with mouthfilling richness balanced by fine-grained tannins and a sense of stone-shackled restraint. Possessing tremendous power and length, it should age well for at least two decades.
Glass-staining ruby. Mineral-accented dark berries, licorice, incense, olive and succulent flowers on the intensely perfumed nose. Impressively concentrated, expansive flavors of blueberry, black raspberry, spicecake, smoked meat and candied violet are complicated by licorice and bitter chocolate notes that sneak in on the back half. Sweet, sappy and sharply delineated on the floral- and dark-berry-driven finish, which shows outstanding clarity and well-knit but substantial tannins that build smoothly and steadily.