2012 Hermitage Ex Voto
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Tasting notes
Inky ruby. Black currant, boysenberry, vanilla and smoky Indian spices on the intensely perfumed, mineral-tinged nose. Sweet, broad and surprisingly energetic for its heft, offering sappy dark fruit liqueur, violet pastille, fruitcake and spicecake flavors that show no rough edges. The floral and spice notes build steadily on a gently tannic, impressively long finish that shows noteworthy energy and mineral-driven tenacity.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
The 2012 Hermitage Ex Voto (which I suspect won’t be produced again until 2015) was bottled in January of this year and it’s a big, voluptuous beauty that’s loaded with fruit and texture. Crème de cassis, black raspberries, crushed rocks and a touch of beef blood all soar from the glass of this beauty, which hits the palate with a wealth of sweet fruit, building, ripe tannin and blockbuster length. Liquid Viagra would suffice as a descriptor for this wine, and while it’s already impossible to resist today, it will age effortlessly for 25 or more years.
This may or may not be bottled separately. (The 2010 will be bottled only in February 2014.) Firm and dry on the end though some big black fruit sweetness on the palate. Lots of tannin on the end. (JR)