Doesn't quite drink like Hermitage or Northern Rhone. Very modern and ripe, high alcohol (14.5%) even syrupy at some point. A shame to use fruit from J.L. Chave to make this gloppy mess.
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Minimal bricking or pruning to the color of the '05 Betts & Scholl Hermitage. On the nose I get a touch of barnyard, or brett, a load of anise, pepper, and beginning stages of something tertiary that nine years in the bottle has brought. I don't get much fruit, more like vegetables like olive tapenade. Are olives vegetables? Smelling this I could mistake this for a bloody Mary with its touch of heat and whisper of celery and tomato. On the palate I get little grip as the tannins are very smooth. Here we go again with that extreme minerality on the palate that reminds me of the 2000 Cantemerle, a wine that had a strange tongue-numbing effect on me. The palate reminds me of an old school Rioja with a sensation of iron in the mouth like I just chewed a Flintstone vitamin. Lots of tapenade on the palate. Something to this Hermitage is just a bit off and there's a lack of complexity. Not bad but not that good. Considering this is almost totally fruitless I would opt to drink by Spring, 2015.
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Very nice but surprisingly long in the tooth. I was expecting this to last several more years but this bottle seemed at the end of it's drinking range. I will move my remaining 2 bottles up to drink early.
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This wine is drinking great. Rich deep dark purple, full bodied and smooth. Many dimensions of aged red fruit along with plum near prune. Some hints of leather and chocolate backdrop and spice. Well worth spending time with.
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4/6/2015 - mattyboy_ wrote: 84 Points
Doesn't quite drink like Hermitage or Northern Rhone. Very modern and ripe, high alcohol (14.5%) even syrupy at some point. A shame to use fruit from J.L. Chave to make this gloppy mess.
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7/21/2014 - kanjimoti wrote: 88 Points
Minimal bricking or pruning to the color of the '05 Betts & Scholl Hermitage. On the nose I get a touch of barnyard, or brett, a load of anise, pepper, and beginning stages of something tertiary that nine years in the bottle has brought. I don't get much fruit, more like vegetables like olive tapenade. Are olives vegetables? Smelling this I could mistake this for a bloody Mary with its touch of heat and whisper of celery and tomato. On the palate I get little grip as the tannins are very smooth. Here we go again with that extreme minerality on the palate that reminds me of the 2000 Cantemerle, a wine that had a strange tongue-numbing effect on me. The palate reminds me of an old school Rioja with a sensation of iron in the mouth like I just chewed a Flintstone vitamin. Lots of tapenade on the palate. Something to this Hermitage is just a bit off and there's a lack of complexity. Not bad but not that good. Considering this is almost totally fruitless I would opt to drink by Spring, 2015.
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6/25/2014 - vinodolphin Likes this wine: 92 Points
Opened for several hours. Everyone enjoyed. No tannins remain.
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9/28/2013 - vinodolphin Likes this wine: 90 Points
Very nice but surprisingly long in the tooth. I was expecting this to last several more years but this bottle seemed at the end of it's drinking range. I will move my remaining 2 bottles up to drink early.
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3/31/2013 - wayfarer Likes this wine: 92 Points
This wine is drinking great. Rich deep dark purple, full bodied and smooth. Many dimensions of aged red fruit along with plum near prune. Some hints of leather and chocolate backdrop and spice. Well worth spending time with.
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