Tasting notes

Color: Deep garnet red with purple hues. Nose: Aroma of red fruit, raspberry, black currant and spice Palate: Round, elegant flavors with concentrated tannins and a long finish. Serve with roast beef, lamb and other hearty meat dishes. Suitable for the finest meat entrees.

Rating

Wine Spectator 92 points (Apr 30 2010) This has a core of dark plum and cooked spice notes, while slightly edgy tobacco and olive notes flitter around the edges. There’s latent grip, with a smoldering charcoal hint on the finish. Drink now through 2014. 2,500 cases made. –JM

Other text

Hermitage wines possess a rich historical past. They were appreciated as early on as Roman times when they were enjoyed (as well as Côte Rotie wines) under the name of " Vienne wines "and were later to be called " Saint Christopher's hillside wines " because of a chapel there bearing the saint's name. They were also to be known of as " Tournon wines ". The name of Hermitage probably first appeared in the XVIIth Century in memory of Henry Gaspard, a knight from Stérimberg : who having come back from the Crusades (in the XIIIth Century) and tired of waging war, lived as a hermite on a hillside which had been given to him by Anne of Castille,Queen of Spain. There he planted a vineyard. Alexander Dumas as well as the Tsar Nicholas II are among the many connoisseurs of this particularly highly estimated wine.