2009 Hermitage

Opaque purple. Deeply pitched aromas of blackcurrant and cherry, with anise and black olive nuances adding complexity. Intensely flavored and chewy in texture, offering bitter cherry and dark fruit compote flavors and slow-building spiciness. Fine-grained tannins add grip to the long, focused, very persistent finish. This very young but promising wine will need patience.

Inky purple. Intense aromas of blackcurrant, olive and smoky Indian spices. Then broad but chewy and youthfully restrained in the mouth; there's good deep fruit here but it doesn't want to come out to play. In a distinctly uncompromising style and a tad solid on the smoky finish. This is tough read right now.

This was the only Tardieu Laurent barrel sample that seemed anything other than daisy fresh. The nose seemed very slightly oxidised but that is surely not a fault of the wine itself which is pretty massive, almost monstrous. Was this picked very late? Enormous intensity and concentrated ambition. At this stage the tannins and acidity seem almost painful to me. This is going for the Grand Award! You will have to wait a very long time before you can enjoy this, and it seems perhaps just a little too tense compared with the classic Hermitages from Chave and Chapoutier. So wild it almost bites you! And very, very tight. I remember being very impressed by Tardieu’s 2008 Hermitage. This seems slightly neurotic in comparison though it will doubtless reward the patient. (JR)