From 50- to 90-year-old vines in lieux-dits Les Murets (90%) and L'Ermite (10%), this wine spent 30 months in new oak barriques. Built to impress rather than refresh, this is strongly oak-influenced, with notes of bright toasted peanut, cracked wood and cedar. There's a crème caramel element to aroma (burnt sugar) and flavour (crème pâtissière), and in the mouth it's intensely rich and powerful. It's also very full-bodied - leaning towards over-full - and shot through with oak spice, although some internal salinity and tension helps bring balance. More mature than you might expect at eight years.

Bottled in February of this year, after spending 30 months in new oak barrels, the 2010 Ermitage Ex-Voto Blanc is absolutely heavenly stuff! Comprised of 90% Marsanne and 10% Roussanne, this incredible white boasts massive aromatics of white currants, white peach, flowers, licorice, sauteed nuts and brioche, as well as a striking minerality that comes out with additional time in the glass. Coming from the oldest vines in Hermitage, it is a full-bodied, incredibly concentrated effort that builds on the palate and through the finish, yet stays fresh, elegant and lively, without ever being over the top. One of the greatest white wines I was able to taste during my trip through the region, this beauty should either be consumed in the coming 4-6 years, or forgotten for 20.
-Jeb Dunnuck, Wine Advocate #210 Dec 2013

The utterly perfect 2010 Hermitage Ex Voto Blanc is as good as it gets in Hermitage Blanc. Offering a crazy array of liquid rock-like minerality, graphite, flint, white currants, white peach and quince, it's layered, full-bodied, impeccably balanced and pure. It's a straight up tour de force that’s going to have decades of longevity. As always, the blend is 90% Marsanne and 10% Roussanne, aged 30 months in new French oak. Hat's off to the Guigal family for this incredible wine.