From the Les Bessards and les Grandes Vignes lieux-dits, the 2005 Hermitage Marquise de la Tourette is a head turner that has tons of black raspberry, blackberry, toasted spice, graphite and crushed rock aromas literally soaring from the glass. Medium to full-bodied, nicely textured, balanced and drinking great today, it will continue to evolve nicely for another decade or more.

Similarly-styled to the 2005 Hermitage Les Bessards, the 2005 Hermitage Marquise de la Tourette will also need a decade to round into shape. It may prove to be somewhat of a gamble as it is frighteningly tannic and austere, but it is so concentrated that it is almost painful to taste. Its inky/purple color is accompanied by aromas of graphite, black currant liqueur, licorice, and earth. The wine’s profound depth and richness can be sensed on the palate, but then the tannins kick in and the wine totally shuts down. Forget it for ten years and drink it over the following 25-30. As I have written many times in the past, this famous estate, which muddled along in the seventies, eighties, and early nineties, was reborn when its owners, the Deutz-Roederer Champagne enterprise, brought in the super-talented Jacques Granges, and gave him carte blanche to redo the cellars and elevate the level of quality. Since his first vintage, 1997, Delas has become one of the superb purveyors of high quality Rhone wine. I have enormous admiration for what Granges has accomplished. His most recent vintages, 2005 and 2006, have been brilliant and he continues to do a superb job with the white wines Readers should also know that Delas recently purchased 37 acres of vines in Crozes-Hermitage, so they will be augmenting their production from that appellation. The bottled 2005 reds include some interesting efforts from some of the better villages in the south. The Chateauneuf du Papes and Cotes du Rhones were reviewed in issue #173 (October, 2007)Importer: Maison Marques et Domaines, Oakland, CA; tel. (510) 587-2000

Delas’s big bottling of Hermitage blends three sites, including Les Bessards and L’Hermite to make a Hermitage that should be relatively easy to find at close to 2,000 cases produced. The 2005 is a muscular wine with dusty tannins that demands cellaring, even though it does show attractive notes of cassis and a distinctive blood-iron-mineral streak. Try after 2015.——J.C.(9/1/2007)—— 91