The 2013 Hermitage Ex Voto Blanc is a head-turner that offers sensational notes of buttered stone fruits, charcoal, toasted bread, toasted nuts and freshly crushed rocks. Take Marsanne and filter it through a bed of rocks, and you’d have an idea of what this beauty tastes like. Full-bodied, thick, unctuous and concentrated, it’s certainly one of the most exciting dry whites coming from the Northern Rhône Valley today.

As always, my visit with Marcel and Philippe Guigal is one of the highlights of my entire time spent working in the northern Rhône. As I think the list of wines demonstrate, this is a huge lineup, yet the theme across the entire range is incredible quality. Looking at the top Côte Rôties, the current releases in bottle are the 2012s and these are rich, supple, sexy, even flamboyant wines that will be relatively approachable in their youth, yet have broad drink windows. The 2013s are much more backward and restrained, and built for the long haul, but the long élevage favored at this estate is certainly helping to soften the tannin and give the wines a suppler texture. As to the 2014s, I was shocked at the depth and density this team was able to get in these wines, but this is another vintage that will be approachable in its youth. Lastly, and from vintage described by Marcel as the best of his lifetime (how’s that for perspective?), the 2015s are inky and primordial, with mind-boggling depth and density. These will be reviewed two to three more times before release, but start saving today! Lastly, it’s also worth pointing out that the estate has started utilizing a new cork technique that guarantees no TCA. This doesn’t come cheap and is close to two Euros per cork, but it’s just another example of the attention to detail and the level of effort that this estate puts forth to ensure the quality in the bottle. Hats off to them.

Score: 97 Jeb Dunnuck (JD), JebDunnuck.com (JD), December 2016

(aged for 30 months in all new oak barrels) Brilliant yellow. A powerful, seductively perfumed bouquet evokes poached pear, peach nectar, honey, smoky lees and sweet butter. Offers fleshy, palate-staining orchard and pit fruit and buttery brioche and honeysuckle flavors, plus a vanilla note that emerges stealthily on the back half. Finishes with superb focus and mineral-driven persistence, leaving a suave floral note behind.

Score: 95 Josh Raynolds (JR), Vinous Media (VM), July 2017