2018 Ermitage Le Meal
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Tasting notes
Now showing more structure than Ferraton's Les Dionnières offering, the 2018 Ermitage Le Méal is dominated by purple raspberries, crushed stone and dried spices. There's a delightful three-way tension among fruit, acid and tannin in this full-bodied wine, giving it a sense of freshness and energy. The tannins are prominent but ripe and velvety in feel, imparting a sense of lushness on the long, fruit-tinged finish. It should be ready to drink within another year or two and then drink well for at least a decade.
Critic scores
Average Score
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
There's not much of the 2018 Ermitage Le Méal to go around, but it's a thrilling bottle of wine. Notes of cassis, scorched earth, graphite, and building minerality emerge from the glass, and it's a tight, backward, yet incredibly impressive Hermitage that's going to demand bottle age. Do your best to hide bottles for 5-7 years, and it should keep for 20-25+.
Deep, bright-rimmed purple. Powerful blueberry and blackcurrant aromas are complicated by suggestions of candied flowers, vanilla and incense and a hint of licorice appears in the background. Stains the palate with alluringly sweet black/blue fruit preserve, spicecake, salty olive and violet pastille flavors that are underscored by a vein of smoky minerality. Blends richness and energy with a sure hand and finishes extremely long and precise, with steadily building tannins adding shape and final grip. (all de-stemmed fruit and 40% new oak)
100% Syrah. Cask sample. Tasted blind. Juicy bramble fruit, leathery palate, long and stately on the finish, with semi-firm tannins and powerful, compact fruit that will become much more interesting with time. (RH)