The 2017 Hermitage Les Dionnières is a deep, structured, and serious, with killer notes of crème de cassis, graphite, ground pepper, and inky notes. Rich, full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and with both tannins and acidity to burn, give bottles 5-6 years and enjoy over the following 20+ years.
97 points Jeb Dunnuck jebdunnuck.com
Fleshy and enticing in feel, featuring warm raspberry, blackberry and plum puree notes stitched together with ganache, alder and tobacco threads. A loamy tug checks in at the very end, giving this latent length and a solid bass line.
95 points winespectator.com
From south-facing vines on clay-limestone soils, the fruit was fermented in concrete and will be aged for up to 18 months in oak, around 25% new. The oak is robust but can't entrap the dynamic fruit. There's a touch of rich plum compote to the ripe blackberry on the very full-bodied and thick palate. It's very intense - the extraction has been pushed as far as it can comfortably go - but it has bags of energy, freshness and saline drive keeping things drinkable onto an exceptionally long finish.
