2016 Hermitage Ligne de Crete
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Tasting notes
From a balanced, classic vintage for Hermitage, the 2016 Hermitage Les Grandes Vignes is similarly ruby/plum-hued, with impressive red and black fruits as well as bacon fat, saddle leather, subtle smoke, and peppery herb-like nuances. This meaty, smoky, classic Hermitage is medium to full-bodied and beautifully balanced, with ripe tannins and a great, great finish.
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Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
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The 2016 Hermitage Ligne de Crete Les Grandes Vignes is more approachable than the 2015, offering up notes of violets, blueberries, peppered meat and black olives. It's medium to full-bodied, ripe and velvety-textured—perhaps a bit open-knit for truly long-term aging—but open enough to enjoy now and over the next decade or so. Notes of crushed stone and menthol mark the intense, lingering finish.
Youthful purple. A hugely perfumed bouquet evokes fresh red and blue fruit, floral, exotic spice, licorice, cola and olive scents, along with building mineral and espresso nuances. Stains the palate with alluringly sweet, spice-laced black currant, boysenberry, cherry preserve and fruitcake flavors that show wonderful delineation and mineral lift. The endless, mineral-dominated finish emphatically echoes the blue fruit and floral notes and delivers smooth, steadily building tannins. I also had the chance to re-taste the 2015 version of this wine, which I wrote up last year, and while it's still, predictably, a fetus, it clearly has enormous potential, with the depth, power and tannic structure to ensure a long life. Claire Darnaud and Jacques Grange say that it shouldn't be touched for at least another seven or eight years, preferably longer. This one is definitely at the same quality level, if a bit less forbidding in character.