M. Chapoutier : Le Pavillon 2013

Racy and tightly coiled in feel, with a bright iron spine and tangy sanguine and pepper notes amid the core of cassis, bitter cherry and damson plum fruit. Shows terrific cut and precision. Minerality courses through the finish. Best from 2019 through 2030. 43 cases imported.

4 ha, 100% Syrah. This wine comes from the lieu-dit Les Bessards. The plot has a specific geology: it is composed of a fine layer of sediment lying on granitic subsoil. The 65-year-old vines are located at an altitude of approximately 130 metres on the Hermitage hill, above the ruins of a stone house that gives the wine its name. With tiny yields (20 hl/ha), this is perhaps the most complex of the various Ermitage wines. Mid crimson with purple highlights. Very direct and fresh on the nose. A rather low-key, modest structure yet very well balanced. Gouleyant. Bone-dry finish. Very lively, but a fresher Hermitage than usual. (JR)

Saturated ruby. Pungent, spice- and mineral-accented aromas of dark fruits, candied violet and licorice pick up a peppery topnote in the glass. Sappy, incisive and pure, offering vivacious, deeply concentrated black raspberry and boysenberry flavors and a spicy topnote. The endless finish shows superb clarity and power, harmonious tannins and a strong mineral quality.

More elegant on the nose than Le Méal, more developed, and even more noble in its texture and finish, it takes on a magnificent dimension with aeration.

Le Pavillon is nonetheless impressively dense and powerful, yet the whole is well contained and balanced by notes of graphite and pepper, with lovely freshness on the finish. A bottle that still seems able to age serenely.