ERMITAGE LE MEAL

Description

Review by: Robert Parker
Wine Advocate: Issue 175, February 2008
Rating: 96 points
Drink 2018 – 2060+

There are 481 cases of the black/purple 2005 Ermitage Le Meal. As always, classic blackberry, asphalt, charcoal, and beef blood notes jump from the glass of this intense wine. Full-bodied, with staggering concentration and a personality not terribly dissimilar from a first-growth Pauillac, but showing no evidence of oak whatsoever (and that is in spite of being aged in 100% new oak casks), this wine needs 10-12 years of bottle age, and should keep for 50-100 years.

Review by: James Molesworth
Wine Spectator: Issue Web Only 2008
Rating: 98 points
Drink 2010 – 2030

Big, broad-shouldered version, with loam, tobacco, currant paste and hoisin sauce notes out in front of the formidable tannin structure. Dark, loamy and muscular through the finish, with a haymaker of black fruit and tarry grip. Best from 2010 through 2030. 481 cases made.