2001 Ermitage Blanc, M.Chapoutier, L'Oree (750ml)

Your Price: $116.00

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Quantity:

Vintage: 2001
Format: 750ml
Wine Name: Ermitage Blanc
Vineyard: L'Oree
Designation: Ermitage Blanc
Appellation: Hermitage
Producer: M. Chapoutier
Varietal: Marsanne
Type: White
Country: France
Region: Rhone
Sub-Region: Northern Rhone
Alcohol:

Tasting note: Rich and ripe, yet so elegant and refined. Full-bodied, with a creamy texture, it blends almond paste, butter, citrus and dried fruit into an intriguing whole. Smells like a sweet wine, but this wine has been fermented dry and would make a sensational match with many foods. Drink now through 2015. 555 cases made. (94pts. PM, Wine Spectator)

Tasted: Aug. 31, 2003
Score: 94
Drink: Through 2015

Tasting note: The great American patriot and wine connoisseur Thomas Jefferson called Hermitage “the single greatest white wine of France.” Slightly lower-keyed, but still prodigious, the 2001 Ermitage Cuvee de l'Oree does not possess the muscle, volume, or weight of the 2000, but it is a beautifully etched, elegant, intensely mineral wine offering hints of white flowers, citrus oils, and earth in its dense, full-bodied, chewy personality. Like its older sibling, it will be delicious in its first 3-4 years of life, then close down, to re-emerge 10-12 years later. It will last for three decades or more. These uncompromising offerings from a young genius are not meant for consumers who want something to drink immediately. They are the essence of bio-dynamically farmed vineyard sites cropped incredibly low, given extended fermentations with indigenous yeasts, and rarely touched until they go into the bottle unfined and unfiltered. In most vintages, the wines are not even racked off their lees, which only adds to their natural style. These are truly remarkable wines, but for most readers, patience is the operative rule as they generally need a good 8-10 years to strut their stuff. Once moribund, over the last 12 years, this firm has become one of the reference points for nearly all the Rhone Valley appellations since the brash yet immensely talented Michel Chapoutier took over in the late eighties. The single vineyard offerings are as good as Rhone Valley wines can be. Moreover, Chapoutier continues to upgrade the quality of those wines offered in more significant quantities than the 500 or so cases each of the single vineyard offerings. (93-95pts. Robert Parker)

Tasted: Jun. 2003
Score: 93-95
Drink: 2003-33

Tasting note: Pale color. Reticent but complex nose hints at honey, hay, smoke and mint. Dense but tight; not fleshy or round today but very nicely delineated. The Granits blanc is rounder and more open today but this is ripe, spicy and very long. (89+pts. Stephen Tanzer)

Tasted: Jan/Feb 2003
Score: 89+
Drink: N/A