This is still quite closed on the nose, I would certainly hold this until at least 2025 before trying again. There's a new-leather note to the blackberry fruit. It's full-bodied, exceptionally smooth on your tongue. Great concentration but also great freshness. Acidity is perfectly balanced, this is a Hermitage of great liveliness, pep and freshness. Very long finish. The alcohol isn't low, but it's balanced. Long finish. An exceptional wine in the making.

Presented as components from four different barrels: #1, from Beaume: Exotic scents of candied licorice, dark berries and smoky Indian spices. Fleshy and broad on entry, then tighter in the middle, displaying superb depth to its bitter cherry and floral pastille flavors. #2, from Peleat: Explosive red fruit and potpourri aromas, with a bright mineral overtone. Silky and sweet, offering vibrant raspberry and cherry compote flavors and a touch of bitter chocolate. The red fruit note echoes strongly on the back half. #3, from Meal: Fleshier and rounder than the first two components, offering plush dark berry and violet flavors that coat the palate. Chewy tannins build on the finish and fold smoothly into the wine's dense fruit. #4, from Bessards: Emphatic mineral and dark berry aromas pick up a sexy floral note and a hint of cola. Sappy, penetrating and sharply focused, displaying an impressive array of red fruit and floral qualities and strong finishing spiciness. Jean-Louis Chave told me he thinks this wine will be "classic Hermitage with an emphasis on fruit, not structure, but not lacking in structure at all--just compared to, say, 2010 and 2005."

One of the more charming and forward efforts from Chave, the 2012 Hermitage sports a mostly opaque purple color to go with classic creme de cassis and blackberry fruits intermixed with notions of lead pencil shavings, violets and powdered rocks. Deep, full-bodied and sumptuously textured, with good freshness, this pure, elegant Hermitage shows more and more definition and cut with time in the glass, but never loses it's more fruit forward, charming profile. I suspect it will drink nicely for most of its life. Drink 2017-2037.
96 points – Jeb Dunnuck (eRobertParker.com, Dec 2015)

Jean-Louis has never been the biggest fan of the 2012 vintage (I like it more than he does), yet his 2012 Hermitage is nevertheless a brilliant wine. Deep, concentrated, full-bodied, and powerful, it has a charming, supple style backed up with plenty of underlying minerality, acidity, and structure. Classic notes of crème de cassis, graphite, burning embers, and violets all define the bouquet, and while it’s beautiful today given its purity and balance, it will keep for another 25 years or more.

Black tea and warm ganache notes frame a core of steeped plum, blackberry and boysenberry fruit. Rather restrained at first, this picks up steam through the finish, as a well-embedded graphite edge emerges, letting the dark fruit and anise accents linger beautifully. A poised, polished, understated and precise version that will age deceptively well. JM

Tasted from its final three component tanks on the same day that the final blend was to be made: #1: Ripe cherry and dark berries on the nose and in the mouth. Fleshy, broad and smoky, finishing with strong cling. #2: Spice-accented cherry and cassis aromas, along with suggestions of cola and candied licorice. Sappy and seamless, displaying excellent back-end focus and lift. #3): Sexy, highly perfumed red fruit and floral pastille scents and flavors, with a peppery element adding urgency. Silky and fine-grained, showing excellent closing thrust and length. The ultimate wine should offer a suave blend of richness and vivacity, with textbook dark fruit, spice and floral Syrah character and the balance to age. Josh Raynolds

Stunning nose, plump forest fruit, a touch of reductive peppery character and violets, smoke – so inviting. Rounded palate with firm seductive tannins, opulent but also with such precision and detail. Already drinking well, despite its firm nature – excellent acidity keeps it driven towards the meaty, biltong- and forest-fruit-laden finish – very long. (AC)

Tasted blind. Polished crimson. Ripe fruit – especially riper than the previous wine of this pair tasted blind (Trinity Hill, Homage Syrah 2018). Sweet start but by no means heavy. Limpid and savoury on the end. More emphatic than the previous wine and thoroughly noble in its intentions. There is some complexity here and it will grow into a very fine wine indeed. (JR)

Surprising oak scent on the nose, lots of vanilla and rich spice. After Clape Cornas 2012, this seems very tame and mild. It isn't the most energising Chave I've tasted, but it also has the substance to give more with time. (RH)

Deep ruby. Sweet and complex aromas on the nose, impossible to tease apart but there’s a peppery sweetness, a hint of cigar box and bags of sweet bramble fruit. On the palate, more savoury and super-fresh. There’s tension at the core but clothed in smooth if compact tannins. Generous but structured too. Long with just a hint of leather on the finish. (JH)