2013 Delas, Hermitage, Les Bessards

Vinous 95

(aged in 70% new oak for 18 months): Inky ruby. Sexy, highly perfumed aromas of ripe dark berries, cherry liqueur, peppery spices and fresh flowers, backed by a hint of olive. Supple and appealingly sweet, offering intense, deeply concentrated blackberry and violet pastille flavors and a suggestion of star anise. Finishes pure, sweet and energetic on the penetrating finish, showing outstanding focus and slow-building tannins. [Josh Raynolds, 03/01/2016]

Anticipated maturity: 2022-2029

Wine Advocate 94+

Closed, tight and backwards, the 2013 Hermitage les Bessards is a big, full-bodied, burly wine that offers first rate purity in its black raspberry, ozone, liquid rock, and creosote-like bouquet. It has plenty of material and density, but will need 7-8 years of bottle age to become approachable. As normal, it comes all from the "Bas de Coteau" portion of the Bessards lieu-dit, was completely destemmed and saw 18 months in 30% new French oak. Winemaker Jacques Granges continues to make a number of terrific wines from throughout the Rhone Valley. All of the 2013s showed nicely and possess the fresher, more focused, yet concentrated style of the vintage. The top wines have tons of potential and will reward cellaring. The 2014 reds and whites are both solid as well. I find some push too far towards the leaner end of the spectrum (especially with the whites), but there’s still plenty to love, and the wines have beautiful purity and freshness. As a whole, you can’t go wrong with this estate and the quality is incredibly high, as well as consistent across the entire range. Also, while the style here leans towards the more modern end of the paradigm, with almost complete destemming and aging in varying amounts of new oak, the percentage of new oak continues to be walked back and the wines always show textbook appellation characteristics. In addition, readers should check out the recent domaine profile and retrospective published on eRobertParker.com earlier this year. [Jeb Dunnuck, 28/09/2017]

Anticipated maturity: 2022-2045