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Uutiset
"The 2013 Hermitage Ex Voto Blanc is a head-turner that offers sensational notes of buttered stone fruits, charcoal, toasted bread, toasted nuts and freshly crushed rocks. Take Marsanne and filter it through a bed of rocks, and you’d have an idea of what this beauty tastes like. Full-bodied, thick, unctuous and concentrated, it’s certainly one of the most exciting dry whites coming from the Northern Rhône Valley today."
97 Points Wine Advocate
"Ripe and enticing, with lemon curd, apricot gelée and nectarine flavors bursting forth, backed by light citrus oil, blanched almond and salted butter notes. Shows a flash of green tea through the finish. Exotic in range, refined and detailed in feel. Drink now through 2027."
97 Points Wine Spectator
"The current release (there’s no 2014 Ex Voto Blanc), the 2013 Hermitage Ex Voto Blanc continues to show brilliantly. Possessing a medium gold color and vibrant notes of caramelized citrus, toasted nuts, honeysuckle, wood smoke, and brioche, it has a huge, full-bodied profile, perfect balance, remarkable freshness, and a great finish. It’s a quintessential Hermitage Blanc to drink over the coming 15+ years."
97 Points Jeb Dunnuck
"(aged for 30 months in all new oak barrels) Brilliant yellow. A powerful, seductively perfumed bouquet evokes poached pear, peach nectar, honey, smoky lees and sweet butter. Offers fleshy, palate-staining orchard and pit fruit and buttery brioche and honeysuckle flavors, plus a vanilla note that emerges stealthily on the back half. Finishes with superb focus and mineral-driven persistence, leaving a suave floral note behind."
95 Points Vinous Media
Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
Ermitage Ex-Voto represents the fulfillment of a longtime dream of Marcel Guigal’s to own vineyard land on the hill of Hermitage. Through the purchase of the de Vallouit and J. L. Grippat domaines in 2000, Guigal acquired four exceptional vineyard parcels on this legendary site. The 2001 vintage was the first release of this estate-bottled Hermitage red and white. The quality of the intense old-vine fruit is quite special, but given the Guigal's already strong work in Hermitage, they decided to only release an Ex-Voto red or white when the wine is utterly exceptional and clearly superior to their appellation bottlings. When it is not, the appellation bottlings become the secret steals of the Northern Rhone, as they contain up to 1/3 of Ex-Voto fruit.
The white comes from two parcels, les Murets (90%), a parcel with alluvial and rocky topoils, and L’Hermite (10%), with a loess and sandy limestone topsoil. Moreover there is one group of vines that average 50 years of age, and one that average 90 years of age. These two parcels are in combination planted with 90% Marsanne and 10% Roussanne.
The wine is vinified in and spends 30 months in new oak casks produced by the Guigals at Chateau d'Ampuis. It goes fully through both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in barrel, and is bottled without fining or filtration.
Produced only in exceptional vintages, the Ermitage Ex-Voto is the expression of a sincere desire to own vines in the Hermitage appellation and to produce an exceptional wine which reflects the soul of this prestigious appellation of the Rhône Valley.
Wine Information
Produced only in exceptional vintages, the Ermitage Ex-Voto is the expression of a sincere desire to own vines in the Hermitage appellation and to produce an exceptional wine which reflects the soul of this prestigious appellation of the Rhône Valley.
Eye : Brilliant clean straw yellow.
Nose : White flowers, acacia honey, hawthorn blossom. Powerful and intense aromas.
Palate : Rich and full-bodied. Fully expressive of the terroir which lends this Hermitage body and strength.
Overall : Balance between a delicate and expressive nose and fleshy fruit on the palate underpinned y the powerful terroir.
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