Wine Advisor
Delas, Hermitage Les Bessards 2023
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stuart Pigott
A haunting nose of raw meat, smoke and licorice. Incredible concentration, the power expertly reined in, with enormous finesse. As it aerates, the beautifully ripe forest berry aromas expand and expand. Then the fun really starts with the almost endless finish. Fundamental stony minerality glides over your palate and off into the distance. From an almost pure granite soil in one of the best sections of the hill of Hermitage. Drink from release.
Reviewed by: Yohan Castaing
Elegant, perfumed and racy, the 2023 Hermitage Les Bessards is the highlight of Delas’s range. Wafting from the glass with aromas of rose, lychee, grapefruit and violet, it’s dense and deep, built around perfectly controlled power and a structured core of fruit framed by abundant, sweet tannins that lead to a long, ethereal and precise finish. Combining telluric density with finesse and a notably tensile profile for Hermitage, this is one of the finest renditions of Les Bessards produced at this address.
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.
