85-90% Syrah from Greffieux vineyards and Roussanne, Marsanne - The color is dark red; there is a cassis burst on the nose, hedgerow fruits, a tarry backdrop. It keeps up well, prolongs, has lift. The palate links well to the nose, serves rolling gras richness, a good continuous run of red fruits, raspberry and mulberry; the gras richness lasts OK. It’s not especially deep in fact, but is continuous. It’s a tricky vintage wine, I feel. The elements are separate now, not an ensemble. The tannins crunch out on their own at the end. It gets a bit vegetal on the close, which is smoky, and it needs to be allowed time to fuse. I usually find the two Hermitage reds more apart in quality than this. “The yield effect has closed the gap,” Marc Sorrel. Drinking advise from 2023. Tasted in November 2017.