M. Chapoutier, Hermitage, l'Ermite Rouge 2012

Another wine that topped out on my scale, the 523-case 2012 Ermitage l'Ermite is as profound an Hermitage as you can find. Coming from the granite soils located around the Chapel on the top of Hermitage hill, it's always the most tight, backward and structured of the releases, even more so than the Pavillon, which always seems to have another layer of sweet fruit to me. The 2012 is deeper and richer than the 2011, yet as with most 2012s, it more approachable and forward than the 2010 (and 2009 in this case). Exhibiting awesome notes of powdered rock, creme de cassis, liquid violets and lite gunpowder, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, awesome mid-palate depth and building, ultra-fine tannin that frame the finish. It's an incredible wine that will won't start to become approachable until a decade after the vintage, and then will keep for three decades.

Opaque purple. Powerful, deeply pitched aromas of cassis, candied plum, licorice and violet oil, with suggestions of olive and smoky minerals adding complexity. Weighty and broad in the mouth, offering bitter cherry and floral pastille flavors and a strong note of dark chocolate. Becomes spicier and livelier with air and finishes very long and broad, with chewy tannins adding grip. This is a real baby. The vines at this site are reportedly over 100 years old now.