2015 E Guigal Ermitage Ex Voto, Hermitage, Northern Rhone

Powerful aromatics packed with blackberry and black cherry liqueur, crushed stone, smoke, licorice, coffee, crème de cassis and vanilla get your attention. This thick, viscous, flamboyant wine is a head turner. Silky, polished and richly textured, the finish is packed with layers of perfectly ripe, pure blackberries. I love this style of wine!

99 points thewinecellarinsider.com

Over the years, Guigal has decided to reduce the amount of time the wine spends in barrel, hoping to add more freshness and less of an oak influence to the wine. 
Spicy, cedary and firm, the 2015 Ermitage Ex Voto is built tough, like the granite it comes from. Hints of pencil shavings and crushed stone accent mixed red and black fruit, picking up hints of licorice and pepper on the long, tannic finish. Give this another 5-6 years in the cellar, then drink it over the following decade and a half or so.

96 points Joe Czerwinski robertparker.com Dec 2019 Drink 2025-2040
 
This is a very powerful, sweetly spiced and complex Hermitage with hung meat and very ripe dark berries, delivered amid iodine and dark stones, as well as a core of rich mulberries and blackberries. The palate has an extremely impressive and succulent feel with such intensity and deeply ripe, long, plush tannins. Gossamer smooth finish and long, rich dark-plum flavors. Best from 2025.

96 points jamessuckling.com Oct 2019

E Guigal Ermitage Ex Voto is one of the most powerful and revered Syrah wines in the world, drawn from the steep, granite slopes of Hermitage in the Northern Rhône. This is a legendary hill overlooking the Rhône River, where thin, rocky soils force the vines to struggle, producing tiny berries packed with flavour, tannin and mineral intensity. Hermitage has been making great wine since Roman times, and Ex Voto represents Guigal’s purest and most serious expression of this historic terroir.

Guigal is the first family of the Northern Rhône, founded in 1946 by Étienne Guigal and now led by Marcel and Philippe Guigal. Their obsessive approach to vineyard selection, long élevage and meticulous blending has made wines like Ex Voto icons of French wine. This cuvée is only made in the best vintages, from the estate’s finest parcels on the Hermitage hill, and aged for extended periods in new oak to build depth and structure for decades of ageing.

In the glass, Ex Voto is dark, intense and layered, showing black cherry, blackberry and blueberry, wrapped in smoked meat, black olive, cracked pepper, violets and spice. The palate is dense and powerful, yet remarkably precise, with towering but finely woven tannins, bright acidity and a long, savoury, mineral finish that speaks unmistakably of granite soils and old vines.

This is a wine for serious food and serious occasions. Roast beef, lamb, game meats, rich sauces or simply a beautifully cooked steak allow its depth and structure to shine. It is also a wine that continues to evolve for hours once opened.

E Guigal Ermitage Ex Voto is built for the long haul. In great vintages it will age effortlessly for thirty to fifty years, developing layers of leather, truffle, spice and savoury complexity while retaining its core of dark fruit and mineral drive. It is one of the true benchmarks of Syrah and a profound expression of the Northern Rhône.