Wine Advisor
Delas, Hermitage Les Bessards 2017
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Brilliant purple. Deeply perfumed aromas of ripe blackberry, cherry liqueur and violet take on olive, fruitcake and incense nuances with air. Juicy and deeply concentrated, offering concentrated black and blue fruit, olive paste, floral pastille and spice flavors that become more energetic as the wine opens up. Marries richness and energy with a sure hand and shows superb definition on a strikingly long finish that features youthfully chewy tannins and building floral and spice notes.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Saturated purple. Deeply perfumed, spice-accented dark fruit liqueur, incense, smoky mineral and pungent floral qualities on the nose, along with hints of olive and licorice. Stains the palate with energetic black/blue fruit, candied violet and savory herb flavors that show impressive depth and are given lift and bite by a snap of juicy acidity and a building peppery element. Clings with impressive tenacity on a sweet, floral-driven finish that's supported by velvety, slow-building tannins.
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
Archetypal Les Bessards, the Delas 2017 Hermitage Les Bessards boasts rich, deep cassis fruit accented by hints of crushed stone and pencil shavings. It's full-bodied, ripe yet firm, with great energy, freshness and length on the spice-tinged finish. While relatively approachable young, it should age well for up to two decades. Tasted twice (once blind), with one bottle showing more peppery spice, red berries and cured-meat notes.
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
Tasted blind as an approximation of the final blend, the 2017 Hermitage Les Bessards stands out for its richness and depth. Vanilla notes cosset ripe cassis on the nose, while the full-bodied palate is supple and creamy in texture, with raspberries, spice and velvet all making appearances on the long finish. Writing the review with the benefit of hindsight, this shows a surprising level of approachability.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
This is set in darker fruit tones with a rich and ripe plum and blackberry core, as well as graphite and sarsaparilla. Some hung meat and suave oak spices. The palate has very vertical, mouth-filling presence and a very bright, clear and vibrant style that delivers a long, sweetly spiced blackberry and black-cherry core. Try from 2025.
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.
