The northern Rhone is the spiritual home of the Syrah grape, also known as Shiraz. Producers throughout the world aspire to produce wines as sublime as the best from places such as Hermitage and Cote Rotie.
Tasting notes: A dark smoky edge softens the black fruit, fig, tobacco and roasted chestnut notes. The long fleshy finish has excellent buried minerality.
Tasting notes: "The 1997 Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonnieres is a soft, fat, slightly acidic offering. It possesses a saturated dark ruby/purple color, as well as a pronounced cherry liqueur nose with smoke, roasted herbs, and underbrush notes in the background. Full-bodied, dense, chewy, and made in a user-friendly, accessible style, this wine should be delicious when released, and age well for 12-15 years." Robert Parker 90 - 93 points
Tasting notes: Sourced from the best and oldest vines on the estate, on south/southeast-facing terraces overlooking Chavanay. "Les Chaillets” is not a district but the local name for terraces. This world class Viognier should be drunk with shellfish over the next 5 years and will keep through to 2018 as the aromas continue to evolve.
Tasting notes: "The 1994 Le Pavilion is a blockbuster, phenomenally concentrated wine. Le Pavilion is generally among the top three or four wines of France in every vintage! The 1994's opaque purple color, and wonderfully sweet, pure nose of cassis and other black fruits intertwined with minerals, are followed by a wine of profound richness, great complexity, and full body. It is almost the essence of blackberries and cassis. There is huge tannin in this monster Hermitage, that somehow manages to keep its balance and elegance. Made from a parcel of vines (which I have walked through), some of which predate the phylloxera epidemic, the 1994 Ermitage Le Pavilion should be purchased only by those who are willing to invest 10-12 years of cellaring. It will not reach full maturity before the end of the first decade of the next century, after which it will last for 30 + years." Robert Parker 96 points
Tasting notes: "The extraordinary white Hermitage Cuvee de l'Oree is mindboggling in both 1995 and 1996. Both wines represent the essence of white Hermitage. Made from 100% Marsanne from extremely old vines and microscopic yields of 12 hectoliters per hectare, the wines overwhelm any evidence of their barrique aging. Both possess extraordinary intensity, full body, the multi-layered texture of a great Montrachet, and intense, honeyed, mineral-like fruit flavors that ooze over the palate with remarkable richness, yet no sense of heaviness. These are undoubtedly the greatest white Hermitages I have ever tasted. Both should drink fabulously for another 2-3 years, and then shut down for 10-15 years. Both wines should easily last 40-50 years - assuming excellent storage." Robert Parker 97 points
