M. Chapoutier : Le Pavillon 2016

Smoldering black tea, bay leaf and tobacco hints swirl around a core of gently mulled black cherry and blackberry fruit flavors, ending with singed mesquite and sassafras notes. Sneakily long. This will take time to unwind in the cellar. Best from 2021 through 2040. 48 cases imported.

Matured in 28% new oak for 20 months. Aromas of soy, plum sauce, blackberry and blackcurrant. Exceptional smoothness of tannin, very seductive, almost drinkable now. There's lovely purity and acidity running through to a long finish. Exceptionally pretty and pure, but powerful. A black stallion of a wine.

Barrel sample. Yields of 10 hl/ha. Bright crimson. Very savoury and meaty. Really masculine and polished and pure Hermitage. Long term. (JR)

Brilliant purple. Highly expressive black and blue fruit scents are complemented by building floral pastille, exotic spice and smoky mineral flourishes. Sweet and penetrating in the mouth, offering deeply concentrated black raspberry, boysenberry and spicecake flavors that become more lively on the back half. Shows outstanding clarity and minerally cut on the strikingly long finish, which features fine-grained tannins and resonating florality.

More structured and tannic, yet sensationally concentrated, the 2016 Ermitage Le Pavillon comes all from the broken granite soils of the Bessards lieu-dit and was brought up in just 30% new French oak. It gives up awesome notes of blue fruits, crushed rocks, graphite, and lit gunpowder. Rich, full-bodied, and incredibly massive and opulent on the palate, yet with serious amounts of tannins, extract, and depth, it's a tour de force and one of the gems in the vintage as well as a monumental Hermitage. Hide bottles for 5-7 years, count yourself lucky, and enjoy over the following 4-5 decades.

A fairly juicy palette with ripe fruit that still retains a certain energy. Nose of spices and violet. The juice is more elongated, with a coating texture that nonetheless shows a certain finesse. It remains fresh for this terroir.

Luminous blackberry and raspberry flavors are edged by shards of stone and smoke in this deeply fruity but intensely mineral Syrah. It's fresher and brighter in fruit than the producer's other 2016 Hermitage, full bodied but taut and bracing in feel. Rigid tannins should meld as the wine opens and gains complexity. Best enjoyed from 2022, it should reward cellaring well through 2040.

Aged entirely in barriques (25% new), the 2016 Ermitage Le Pavillon shows only a hint of warm pencil shavings on the nose, beautifully setting up notes of fresh blackcurrants. Full-bodied, concentrated and plush across the mid-palate, it turns rich and velvety on the nearly endless finish, marked by savory notes of beef, licorice and espresso. If you wish to catch a glimpse of this wine's greatness, it would be no crime to open a bottle upon release, as I suspect it will close down for a number of years soon afterward.