L'Ermita, Alvaro Palacios 2024

Tasting a new vintage of L'Ermita is always an exciting moment. The 2024 L'Ermita comes from a very promising vintage for more elegant and cooler wines but also more powerful, darker, fuller and with more extract and volume. This is very young and in need of time. This blend of 90% Garnacha, 6% Cariñena, 3% Picapoll Negre and 1% Garnacha Blanca, Macabeo and Pedro Ximénez (PX) fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts, part destemmed, part uncrushed and is maturing in oval French oak foudres, where it should complete an élevage of some 14 months. It comes in at 14.1% alcohol, with a pH of 3.4 and 5.32 grams of acidity, parameters of balance and very good freshness. This was the most elegant of the 2024s, with a chalky and stony quality, with filigree and refined, elegant tannins. It took time in the glass to unfurl its multidimensional and kaleidoscopic personality. This is a great Ermita in the making. They expect to fill 3,800 bottles in 2026. 2027 - 2042