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2012 Hermitage Rouge “La Pierrelle”

Barruol / Lynch
Discount Eligible $75.00
SOLD OUT
Hermitage is one of those few places that hold mythical status in every French person’s wine imagination. While most of France has never had the opportunity to taste Romanée-Conti, or Château Petrus, or a wine from the hill of Hermitage, almost everyone seems to know these three places and hold them as the nec plus ultra for Burgundy, Bordeaux, and the Rhône, respectively. Adding to the celebrity of Hermitage is the north–south highway that descends from Paris to Marseille, cuts just below the slope, and serves as a sort of marker for vacation goers driving south to Provence that they’ve arrived in the hallowed Le Sud. I don’t have leads for you to score any Romanée-Conti or Petrus, but you do have this rare chance to get your hands on some Hermitage. I’ve never met anyone as obsessive and encyclopedic about this slope as Louis Barruol, born in Gigondas but with his heart in Hermitage. Memories of the great Hermitage producers and wines of yesteryear drive him to work tirelessly to recreate the magic only this terroir can produce. This cuvée, from the celebrated La Pierrelle parcel at the top of the hill, is intense, intriguing, rustic, and grand, with an utterly unique and long finish that Barruol describes as “crushed rock and cold ash.”
For those yet uninitiated to the pleasure of Hermitage, or those familiar with the Greats, none will be disappointed by this classic. –Chris Santini

Technical Information
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2012
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: Syrah
Appellation: Hermitage
Country: France
Region: Northern Rhône
Producer: Barruol / Lynch
Winemaker: Louis Barruol
Vineyard: 30 - 50 years
Soil: Granite
Aging: Aged on average for 15 months in barrel, no new barrels - barrels are 1 or 2 years old
Farming: Lutte Raisonnée
Alcohol: 13%

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Inspiring Thirst

I want you to realize once and for all: Even the winemaker does not know what aging is going to do to a new vintage; Robert Parker does not know; I do not know. We all make educated (hopefully) guesses about what the future will bring, but guesses they are. And one of the pleasures of a wine cellar is the opportunity it provides for you to witness the evolution of your various selections. Living wines have ups and downs just as people do, periods of glory and dog days, too. If wine did not remind me of real life, I would not care about it so much.

Inspiring Thirst, page 171