Wine Advisor
Delas, Hermitage Les Bessards 2005
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Opaque ruby. Fresh cherry and boysenberry on the nose, with seductive floral and mineral qualities adding complexity. Becomes more pungent with air, picking up tobacco, spicecake and dried violet scents. Juicy dark fruit flavors spread across the palate, ending with good mineral snap. This is very intriguing, as well as quite young.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Inky ruby. Powerful, pungent cassis, blackberry and graphite aromas. Huge, deeply concentrated dark fruit flavors completely absorb the tannins, giving this an almost liqueur-like impression. The fruit actually builds on the remarkably powerful, sweet finish, taking a darker turn to mulberry and boysenberry. An Hermitage with outstanding clarity and length.
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
Another monster wine is the 2005 Hermitage les Bessards, which comes all from the incredibly steep, pure granite soils on the western edge of Hermitage hill. Aged in 100% new French oak, it's overflowing with granite-like minerality and crushed rock, with background notes of graphite, smoked duck, blackberry, currants and charcoal emerging with time in the glass. Full-bodied, thick, massively concentrated and tannic, it still needs short-term cellaring, but will be a 50-year wine.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The top cuvee of the house (but with the production limited to approximately 500 or so cases) is the Hermitage Les Bessards, only made in the best vintages. The 2005 Hermitage Les Bessards is a brilliant, brilliant wine. Opaque bluish purple to the rim with a nose of graphite, spring flowers, creme de cassis, and blueberry, the wine is super-rich, full-bodied, with frightening levels of concentration as well as tannin and good acidity. This is a long-term prospect, and anyone not willing to invest a decade of cellaring should just forget about it. This is a wine that will last 50-60+ years, and not be approachable for at least a decade, and that may be optimistic. Nevertheless, this is extraordinary stuff for those with 19th century palates. The very talented Burgundian Jacques Granges continues to build on the success he has had at Delas Freres. He, along with the new owners, the Deutz-Roederer Champagne empire (they recently acquired Pichon-Lalande in Pauillac as well), have been responsible for the resurrection of Delas from a so-so negociant to one of the better sources of top-quality Rhones. And this has been done in less than a decade. 2004 is a classic vintage of structure and good balance, but too often lacking concentration. The 2005s are much more concentrated but also structured, tannic, and backward. Importer: Maison Marques et Domaines, Oakland, CA; tel. (510) 587-2000
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Black/purple to the rim, the sensational 2005 Hermitage Les Bessards possesses a classic bouquet of graphite, licorice, creme de cassis, and a touch of background oak. Massive, even monstrous in the mouth with enormous extract, this is a 50-60 year wine. It is full-bodied, high in tannin, and should not be touched for another decade. It will keep through 2050+. As I have written many times in the past, this famous estate, which muddled along in the seventies, eighties, and early nineties, was reborn when its owners, the Deutz-Roederer Champagne enterprise, brought in the super-talented Jacques Granges, and gave him carte blanche to redo the cellars and elevate the level of quality. Since his first vintage, 1997, Delas has become one of the superb purveyors of high quality Rhone wine. I have enormous admiration for what Granges has accomplished. His most recent vintages, 2005 and 2006, have been brilliant and he continues to do a superb job with the white wines Readers should also know that Delas recently purchased 37 acres of vines in Crozes-Hermitage, so they will be augmenting their production from that appellation. The bottled 2005 reds include some interesting efforts from some of the better villages in the south. The Chateauneuf du Papes and Cotes du Rhones were reviewed in issue #173 (October, 2007) Importer: Maison Marques et Domaines, Oakland, CA; tel. (510) 587-2000
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
A wine that needs to be left alone for another 4-5 years is the 2005 Hermitage Les Bessards. As with the Cote Rotie La Landonne, I tasted this earlier in the year and it showed similar this go around as well. Massive, tannic, concentrated and backwards, with tons of graphite, crushed rock and smoked meats, it has full-bodied richness, massive tannin and a big finish. I worry a smidge about the overall tannin level/balance here, but I’m still convinced that this wine’s best days lie ahead.
About the Producer
The famous Drass Frère wine company was founded in 1835. Since 1996, the spirit and soul that contributed to the reputation of quality wines has been restored. At present, the Dras brothers have a total of 30 hectares of vineyards, 10 of which are in the Emmettage-Hermitage appellation, 2 in Saint-Joseph and the remaining 18 in Croze-Hermitage. The steep granite hillsides provide favourable growing conditions for the vineyards of the Hermitage appellation, which produces the best quality wines. The grapes are hand-harvested and the fruit is intact and not prone to premature crushing, and in 1996 the estate was renovated by replacing all the old stainless steel fermentation vats with 85 litre concrete vats, and the 2,500 litre old oak barrels were replaced by 600 Burgundy oak barrels. The renovation of the equipment has allowed the winery to separate the fermentation of different batches of grapes, set the fermentation temperature according to the needs of the different varieties, and to monitor them in a targeted manner. The winery uses the gravity artesian method in the vinification process, where the fruit is crushed and poured by gravity into the fermentation vats. After fermentation and pressing, the wine is decanted into oak barrels where malolactic fermentation takes place. The main grape variety is Syrah, but the estate also produces some white wines, mainly made from Marsanne and Viognier. The wines of the Delas Brothers include Domaine des Tourettes, Les Bessards, Seigneur de Maugiron and Francois de Tournon. Francois de Tournon, among others.
