2018 Ermitage Les Greffieux
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Tasting notes
Saturated violet color. A highly complex bouquet evokes ripe red and dark berries, potpourri, exotic spices and olive. Stains the palate with sweet black raspberry and cherry liqueur flavors that take on licorice, allspice and smoky mineral accents on the back half. Rich yet impressively lively in style, showing sharp precision on the wonderfully persistent, youthfully tannic and floral-driven finish.
Critic scores
Average Score
The Wine Advocate
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Certainly the most plush and sexy of the 2018 single vineyard releases, the 2018 Ermitage Les Greffieux is all Syrah from the more sedimentary soils at the base of the Le Méal hillside and was destemmed and brought up in a mix of barrels and demi-muids, with just 20% being new. Its dense purple color is followed by a smorgasbord-like array of black raspberries, smoked game, bouquet garni, violets, and high-end leather. Ripe, sexy and textured on the palate, it still has a weightless mouthfeel, building tannins, and a great finish. It's not quite as massive or concentrated as the 2006, but it's certainly a gorgeous Hermitage. Forget bottles for 4-6 years and enjoy over the following two decades.
A highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe red and blue fruits, Moroccan spices, incense, candied flowers and licorice. Alluringly sweet and penetrating in the mouth, offering intense, mineral-accented cherry, black raspberry, floral pastille and spicecake flavors underscored by a core of juicy acidity. Hangs on with superb tenacity on the youthfully tannic, penetrating finish, which leaves behind sappy dark berry and floral notes.
Chapoutier's 2018 Ermitage les Greffieux features faint herbal notes and red raspberries on the nose. The most precocious of the 2018 Ermitage samples, it's full-bodied yet silky—almost lush and creamy on the palate, with a long, peppery-spicy finish.