Empire Merchants
Delas Freres Hermitage Les Bessards 2017
Delas Freres Hermitage Les Bessards 2017
FRANCE : RHONE VALLEY : HERMITAGE
Syrah
FULL-BODIED, CASSIS, CRUSHED STONE, GRAPHITE, CURED MEAT, NEW OAK
Les Bessards is the most granite-intensive section of Hermitage Hill — the western flank where thin soils over solid bedrock force concentration and yield a mineral signature found nowhere else in the Northern Rhône. Delas Frères selects only their oldest parcels here, producing roughly 6,000 bottles per year, and only in the best vintages.
2017 was a drought year on the hill, and the conditions drove extraction and density to a high level. Jacques Grange fermented in open-top concrete tanks with pre-fermentary skin contact, then aged the wine 14 months in new and once-used oak barriques — a regimen that frames the black-fruited, iron-threaded core without softening it.
Wine Advocate scored it 97 points, calling it "full-bodied, ripe yet firm, with great energy, freshness and length." Decanter matched at 97: "aerial and lifted... long, saline and very well balanced." Best from 2025 through 2042.
PAIRINGS :
| Grilled lamb chops | classic Northern Rhône match; tannin structure and dark fruit echo the herbal, meaty character |
| Duck confit | iron minerality and black fruit cut through rendered fat without overpowering the dish |
| Aged Comté | saline, graphite finish carries through nutty alpine cheese |
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