Chapoutier Ermitage L'Ermite Rouge 2012 (750ML)

100 JD / 100 WCI / 97 WS / 18.5 JR

I’ve always loved the 2012 Ermitage L'Ermite, and it’s probably the wine of the vintage. Coming from the pure granite soils around the Chapel, it’s a bigger, richer, more concentrated wine than the 2012 yet still has elegance and finesse as well as incredible minerality. Blackcurrants, cassis, crushed stone, and violet notes are just some of the nuances here, and it’s a full-bodied powerhouse on the palate. Give bottles another couple of years and enjoy through 2050. - Jeb Dunnuck

This feels like an entire magnum of wine was somehow, crammed into a single bottle. Inky in color, this is so dense, it fills your mouth, coats your palate, staining your teeth and palate with a massive wall of fruit, tannin and crushed stones. There is a fabulous purity to the fruit and a lushness to the texture that lets you know, this wine means business. 2-3 decades are needed for this to really come around. But it will get there. However, unless you're young, you might be laying this down for your kids. - Jeff Leve, Wine Cellar Insider

This blazes along, with a riveting iron note running from start to finish, keeping the red currant, damson plum, blackberry and boysenberry fruit racy and defined. Shows terrific cut through the finish, revealing extra tar and ganache hints for textural nuance. Very long. Best from 2018 through 2030. 44 cases imported. - James Molesworth, Wine Spectator

Racy, sinewy, polished with refined ripe fruit underneath but very skilfully hidden. Long and juicy and so very different from Le Méal, for instance. Much less burly. Splits the difference between Méal and Greffieux. Wonderfully lifted nose. Savoury. - Jancis Robinson