Ermitage l'Ermite, Maison M. Chapoutier 2015

Lastly, the 2015 Ermitage L’Ermite offers that classic, searing granite/ozone-laced bouquet of crème de cassis, liquid rocks, graphite, and lead pencil. More tight, focused and backward than the Pavillon, it's no less impressive and is pure, full-bodied, massively concentrated and focused. It’s another monumental wine from Michel Chapoutier that needs to be forgotten for 8-10 years and will have 40-50 years of prime drinking. Enough can’t be said about the quality coming from this estate and these 2015s are certainly a match for what was achieved in 2009 and 2010. I wish every reader could taste these majestic, magical wines.

My pick of Chapoutier's 2015 Ermitage bottlings on this occasion was the 2015 Ermitage l'Ermite. It just edged out the other wines for its incredible purity of cassis fruit, indelible intensity and massive concentration. Size doesn't matter if the other elements aren't there, but this wine is complex, balanced and long, a true tour de force. Hints of crushed stone, peppery spice and grilled meat are in the background right now, partially submerged under the waves of fruit and ripe tannins, so give it a decade or so to shed some of that puppy fat and reveal its true nature.

Best of 2017: Joe Czerwinski - My favorite of Chapoutier’s single-parcel bottlings, this wine melds the incredible power of the vintage to the indelible granite face of the terroir in an embrace of soulmates.