2020 Delas Hermitage Les Bessards

Other Reviews....
Looking terrific out of barrel, the 2020 Hermitage Les Bessards boasts classic aromas of crushed stone, black cherries and cassis on the nose. It's full-bodied, perhaps a touch warm, but with wonderfully silky, rich tannins and a long, licorice-tinged finish. It should drink well for close to two decades. Drink: 2025-2040.
95-97 points
Joe Czerwinski - Wine Advocate (Jan 2022)

Inky violet. Displays assertive aromas of blackcurrant, cherry-cola and violet, along with olive, smoked meat and vanilla nuances that gain strength with aeration. Vibrant, focused and ppealingly sweet, offering intense, mineraldriven black and blue fruit, floral pastille and smoky bacon flavors that become deeper and spicier as the wine opens up. The floral note comes back strong on the impressively long, penetrating finish, which features youthfully chewy tannins and exotic spice notes.
97-98 points
Josh Raynolds - Vinous

All Syrah from unquestionably one of the greatest terroirs on the planet for the variety, the dense purple-hued 2020 Hermitage Les Bessards offers up a monster of a bouquet of primordial blue fruits, camphor, burning embers, and scorched earth. This carries to a powerful yet incredibly pure Hermitage with building tannins, bright acidity, stunning mid-palate depth, and a great finish. It's going to push the upper boundary of my rating scale, but it's for consumers with plenty of patience and will be mostly only educational for the first decade of life or so.
97-99 points
Jeb Dunnuck

Full-bodied, fine and tightly wound, but with a good sense of harmony and typicity. Stretching skywards, this is a tense, saline style but with sufficient fat around the bones to make for a long-lasting wine. You can really feel the granite. From their oldest parcel of lieu-dit Les Bessards, fermented in concrete, then aged for 12 months in new and one-year-old barrels. Drink: 2028-2045.
96 points
Matt Walls - Decanter

Rock-solid, with a core of clearly defined red and black cherry compote flavors that bristle with energy, as apple wood, savory and anise notes sparkle throughout. A racy graphite spine drives the finish, where a long, lingering twang of iron plays out amid the fruit. Best from 2024 through 2038.
95 points
James Molesworth - Wine Spectator