Ferraton Ermitage Les Dionniers 2016 (750ML)

95 JD / 94 JS / 94 VM / 94 WE / 94 DE / 92 WA / 92 WS / 17.5 JR

Coming all from sedimentary soils on the eastern side of the hill and brought up in 20% new barrels, the 2016 Ermitage Les Dionnières is a gem in the lineup. Blackberries, currants, roasted herbs, cured meats, and spice notes all emerge from this opulent, powerful, yet also pure and precise Hermitage. It's rich and full-bodied on the palate yet holds onto a fabulous sense of purity and elegance. It will keep for 2-3 decades. Jeb Dunnuck

A profoundly spicy and dark-stony nose with a deep-set, dark-plum core. Petrichor and pepper here, too. The palate has a very dense, quite plush and suave feel with a sweet-spice edge and very assertive, mouth-filling tannins, bathed in dark-plum and black-cherry flavors. Try from 2026. - James Suckling

Brilliant purple. Deeply perfumed dark berry liqueur, violet pastille, smoky bacon and exotic spice aromas show outstanding clarity and mineral lift. Alluringly sweet, palate-coating black raspberry, cherry liqueur and floral pastille flavors are braced by a spine of juicy acidity. Rich but energetic, finishing with powerful mineral thrust, sneaky tannins and building floral and spice qualities. Fermented in concrete tanks and aged for 18 months in oak demi-muids, 25% of them new-Josh Raynolds, Vinous Media

Savory, spicy notes of salted licorice and leather accent roasted, richly concentrated flavors of black plum and boysenberry in this wine. Muted by shades of earth and framed by gripping, fiery tannins, it's a ripe yet classically rugged expression of Hermitage that will benefit from long cellaring. Approach from 2028. The wine should reward well beyond 2045. — Anna Lee C. Iijima, Wine Enthusiast

A very appealing nose, with intense, expressive and lively dark fruits among woodsmoke and herbs. It's a very full, large-scale Hermitage, expansive in the mouth and very tannic with a very long finish, but crucially, although dry and savoury, it's also ripe. This will take time for the tannins to soften.-Matt Walls, Decanter

Smoky and cedary up front, the 2016 Ermitage Les Dionnières is already drinkable. Cola and black olive notes give this medium to full-bodied wine a decidedly savory look, but it finishes velvety and long.-Joe Czerwinski, The Wine Advocate

Quite ripe and well-focused, with waves of dark plum, fig and blackberry compote rolling through, inlaid deeply with a graphite note and backed by swaths of loam and tobacco on the finish. This relies predominantly on its bass line. Best from 2022 through 2033. 200 cases made, 30 cases imported.-James Molesworth, Wine Spectator

More tannic than their Miaux, with plenty of black fruit and liquorice flavour giving powerful intensity on the finish too. Lovely meaty character just emerging, and some medicinal notes too. Accomplished, sophisticated and fearsomely intense.-Richard Hemming MW, JancisRobinson