2016 Hermitage Ligne de Crete

The 2016 Hermitage Ligne de Crete Les Grandes Vignes is more approachable than the 2015, offering up notes of violets, blueberries, peppered meat and black olives. It's medium to full-bodied, ripe and velvety-textured—perhaps a bit open-knit for truly long-term aging—but open enough to enjoy now and over the next decade or so. Notes of crushed stone and menthol mark the intense, lingering finish.

Youthful purple. A hugely perfumed bouquet evokes fresh red and blue fruit, floral, exotic spice, licorice, cola and olive scents, along with building mineral and espresso nuances. Stains the palate with alluringly sweet, spice-laced black currant, boysenberry, cherry preserve and fruitcake flavors that show wonderful delineation and mineral lift. The endless, mineral-dominated finish emphatically echoes the blue fruit and floral notes and delivers smooth, steadily building tannins. I also had the chance to re-taste the 2015 version of this wine, which I wrote up last year, and while it's still, predictably, a fetus, it clearly has enormous potential, with the depth, power and tannic structure to ensure a long life. Claire Darnaud and Jacques Grange say that it shouldn't be touched for at least another seven or eight years, preferably longer. This one is definitely at the same quality level, if a bit less forbidding in character.