Tardieu Laurent : Hermitage "Vieilles Vignes" 2025

Characteristics and tasting tips for the Hermitage "Vieilles Vignes" 2025 by Tardieu Laurent

Serving and cellaring

The Hermitage “Vieilles Vignes” 2025 is ideally served at a temperature of around 16°C. The estate explicitly recommends cellaring it, as this wine is designed for long-term ageing rather than immediate drinking.

Hermitage “Vieilles Vignes” 2025 Tardieu-Laurent: old-vine Syrah meets the precision of the Northern Rhône

The estate

Tardieu-Laurent is a Rhône Valley négociant house founded in 1996 in Lourmarin, in the Luberon, by Michel Tardieu, following an initial collaboration with the Burgundy négociant Dominique Laurent. Now run by the Tardieu family, with Michel supported by his children Bastien and Camille, this Rhône Valley house owns no vineyards of its own and sources its grapes from numerous partner growers, focusing on old vines and an ageing approach inspired by Burgundian methods.

The vineyard

This cuvée comes from vines aged around sixty years, planted on several emblematic lieux-dits on the Hermitage hill, including the start of Méal, Pierrelles, Diognières and La Croix. These parcels sit on predominantly granitic soils, sometimes mixed with clay, giving the vines deep roots and slow ripening, which favour concentration and finesse in the grapes.

The vintage

The 2025 vintage was marked by a mild, wet winter that allowed the soils to replenish their water reserves, followed by a spring alternating between heavy rainfall and heat spikes, which required growers to remain particularly vigilant against fungal pressure. In the Northern Rhône, rainfall remained more moderate than in the south, and phenolic ripeness progressed in step with sugar ripeness, achieving a favourable balance between density and freshness.

Winemaking and ageing

The Hermitage “Vieilles Vignes” 2025 is vinified using around one third whole-bunch fruit, with the remainder destemmed, in order to add structure and complexity without excessive rusticity. Ageing takes place in two stages: twelve months in new and one-year-old barrels, made from oak from the Tronçais and Allier forests, followed by a further twelve months in oak foudres, which refine the texture and gradually integrate the oak.

Grape varieties

This wine is made from 100% Syrah.