April 3, 2024 - Tasted/drank...
December 31, 2023 - Bu sur deux jours, quelle belle Syrah très typée, nez aromatique et complexe, olives, bacon, herbes, violettes. Bouche profonde, fine, beaucoup de classe avec encore une belle puissance contenue, quelle belle texture, de la soie et superbe longueur. 95-96
Drank over two days, gorgeous and complex nose of violets, bacon, olives, spices and herbs but all in finesse and class, still some dept and power, the texture is like silk, length is amazing, another great 2006 by Chapoutier.
March 3, 2023 - Tannins have smoothen out, medium+ nose, more red fruits than dark, concentrated and intense yet light enough for one to appreciate what the fuss was about. Easy and a pleasure to drink, so I keep reaching for this glass and left the St-Joseph Le Clos alone.
January 18, 2023 - Wow! Delicious berry flavors with some underlying coffee-graphite nuances! I think this is likely peaking now so would start to drink up over say next two years? This is like JL chave where I can’t tell if I love the reds or whites more!!
September 3, 2022 - Deep dark color and great nose. Spice and smoke but an interesting twist of flavors with great length.
February 4, 2022 - Deep dark red/garnet in the glass. And what a nose. A mix of fully ripe red fruit, smoke and minerals but not in an in-your-face way. There's something much more ethereal and subtle going on here with hints of cherry wood smoke that reminds me more of an aged Brunello. On the palate the fruit is very concentrated yet pure, light and lifted with a lingering aftertaste of ripe cherry. Plenty of grippy tannins on the finish suggesting this has many years of development ahead.
The wine was decanted 1hr in advance but continued to open out over the course of the evening becoming yet more balanced and delicious and the nose more intoxicating by the hour. Glad I have five more bottles to follow over the years.
December 25, 2021 - Medium garnet,medium(+) violet,blackberry,black cherry,black plum,green bell pepper,eucalyptus,black pepper,liquorice,ripe fruit,wed stones,vanilla,cloves,leather,mushroom,chocolate,dry,medium(+) acidity,smooth medium(+) tannin,high alcohol,medium(+) body,long finish,outstanding wine,suitable for bottle ageing
December 5, 2021 - Speechless.
Encore beaucoup de structure à assouplir, mais magnifique bu sur plusieurs heures, évoluant continuellement. Plus sur le fruit que L'Ermite dégusté en même temps, mais tout de même encore très structuré, mais magnifique. Beaucoup de finesse. Une main de fer dans un gant de velours...
August 13, 2021 - A huge and profound bouquet. Ripe and pure blackcurrant, earthy truffle and black pepper, surrounded by splash of graphite, seasoned cedar and leather. Still very youthful, fresh and structured on the palate. This needs at least 2 hours of decanting for the tannins to settle into the full-bodied and spicy mid-palate. Persistent and intense. Good transition to a deep and lingering finish. Keep for a few more years for the wine to develop greater harmony. 95-97 pts.
May 21, 2021 - Waking up in my pub room on the last day of my annual pilgrimage to the Hampshire chalk streams the very first thing I did was to decant a magnum of Le Pavillon ‘06 into two jugs I’d purchased for this purpose. I left it in the jugs while enjoying breakfast then poured it back into the bottle (unsealed) before heading off to the River Dun for a great day of fishing allowing it to breath. Returning hungry and happy my friends and I then decamped to the Greyhound on the Test for a change of scene. We asked nicely and they agreed to a very reasonable corkage charge. The Hermitage was still brooding when we first tried it though it opened up deliciously over the course of the evening. Drinking it we were lost somewhere in the undergrowth of the forest floor but with tantalising red fruits cutting through the heavy earthy, meatiness. Went superbly with my duck. I’ve got two left and I really ought to leave them five to ten years to mature into their full glory but that isn’t going to happen. Joyful.