Delas Hermitage Les Bessards 2017

Professional Ratings

• 97 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  Archetypal Les Bessards, the Delas 2017 Hermitage Les Bessards boasts rich, deep cassis fruit accented by hints of crushed stone and pencil shavings. It's full-bodied, ripe yet firm, with great energy, freshness and length on the spice-tinged finish. While relatively approachable young, it should age well for up to two decades. Tasted twice (once blind), with one bottle showing more peppery spice, red berries and cured-meat notes.
• 96 Wine Enthusiast
  Deep, undulating layers of cassis and mulberry are shaded by hints of cinnamon, charred meat and coffee bean in this hulking Syrah. It's a rich, plushly textured sip but gripped by a firm, penetrating frame of tannins. Stunning but a bit unwieldy in youth, it would be best cellared till 2022, but the wine will reward patience.
• 94 Wine Spectator
  A sleek, mineral-edged version, with black cherry and black currant puree flavors streaming through, laced with singed mesquite notes, a flash of iron and a lingering sanguine echo. Restrained in style but not lacking energy, delivering a nice piercing feel at the very end. Best from 2020 through 2032.
• 94 James Suckling
  This is set in darker fruit tones with a rich and ripe plum and blackberry core, as well as graphite and sarsaparilla. Some hung meat and suave oak spices. The palate has very vertical, mouth-filling presence and a very bright, clear and vibrant style that delivers a long, sweetly spiced blackberry and black-cherry core. Try from 2025.