2006 Hermitage Cuvee Emilie

Dark purple color. Vivid, exotically perfumed bouquet of fresh red berries, potpourri, cinnamon, allspice and juniper, plus a hint of anise. Suave and precise, with elegant red and dark berry flavors, silky texture and slow-building spiciness. Becomes sweeter on the strikingly pure and sappy finish.

Inky purple. Energetic red and dark berry aromas are complicated by violet, jasmine, Asian spices and minerals; this displays the clarity and florality of a white wine! Taut, sharply focused redcurrant and raspberry flavors offer impressive freshness and focus, with an exotic blood orange quality building on the close. This is extremely suave. (The 2006 Hermitage Autrement showed superb concentration of sweet dark fruit but was overwhelmed by candied vanillin oak. In this seriously disjointed state, it was impossible to assess with confidence.)