Very floral and just settling in with fresh red cherries and blackberries that have real freshness and definition. Great energy here. Very upright and elegantly focused. Dark chocolate and licorice to close. You feel the granite profoundly here.

Inky ruby. Highly precise, mineral-accented black/blue fruit, exotic spice, olive paste and incense aromas pick up hints of smokiness and candied licorice as the wine opens up. Seamless and penetrating on the palate, offering urgent blueberry, cherry preserve, spicecake and floral pastille flavors and a strong jolt of smoky minerality. Deepens steadily on the strikingly long, penetrating finish, which features smooth, interwoven tannins and resonating florality. Josh Raynolds

Youthfully tight, this features a cloak of tarry-edged tannins draped over a core of well-steeped red and black currant and blackberry fruit. Long and driven, with notes of humus, black tea, singed alder and tobacco leaf streaming alongside the fruit from start to finish, this ends with a hint of smoldering cast iron. Reserved in style overall, showing serious latent length and cut, this should cruise and blossom in the cellar. JM

I was able to taste the 2016 Hermitage from three separate tanks which are blended prior to bottling. All three samples showed brilliant purity of fruit, full body, a forward, seamless, elegant texture, and classic building minerality. This is haute couture at its finest and is pure class that could come from nowhere else. As with most 2016s, it's going to be relatively accessible in its youth, yet this is one Hermitage that's not going to hit maturity for another 8-10 years and will keep for three decades.

Still mostly in separate components, the 2016 Hermitage nevertheless looks sensational. Les Beaumes was very pretty and red fruited, with silky tannins (94 - 96). Le Méal was putting itself forward as plush and velvety, with flowers, crushed stone and ripe fruit (95 - 97). A combined sample of les Bessards and l'Hermite showed great, granite-derived structure allied to licorice and cassis (96 - 98). Joe Czerwinski