2016 - Hermitage Le Meal, Ferraton Pere and Fils

Dark purple. Highly expressive black and blue fruit preserve, exotic spice, peony and smoked meat scents show excellent clarity and pick up hints of vanilla and licorice with air. Deeply concentrated, spice-tinged dark berry and bitter cherry flavors are complemented by a hint of candied flowers on the back half. Broad and chewy in texture, finishing with strong, floral- and spice-dominated persistence and youthful tannins that lend solid grip. Fermented in concrete tanks and raised in oak demi-muids, 40% of them new, for 18 months.