L'Ermita 2023 Magnum en Primeur

I tasted an extremely young sample of the 2023 L'Ermita that wasn't yet bottled. They selected the grapes from four of the total 4.7 hectares of the vineyard that was planted in 1909, 1939 and 1996. It's 84% Garnacha, 13% Cariñena, 2% Picapoll and 1% of the local whites, Garnacha Blanca, Macabeo and Pedro Ximénez. It fermented with part of full clusters and indigenous yeasts in oak vats with a longer maceration than in 2022, a total of 42 days followed by an élevage in French oak oval foudres that should last 14 months. Despite the fact that Álvaro told me he prefers the 2023s to the 2022s, this sample of L'Ermita feels darker and earthier and a little more rustic than the wine from 2022. It's still quite early, of course, and the wine is still a baby that needs to grow and develop in the foudre. It's intensely tannic, still very raw and undeveloped. It has 14.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.49 and 4.95 grams of acidity. They expect to fill some 4,200 bottles. This will not be bottled until 2025. I sampled the wine again a couple of months later, and it was still too young but kept the darker and earthier profile that I also found in the sample of La Baixada. Tasting the samples of the whole portfolio, I found two styles, a more ethereal, earthier and perfumed set of wines, Finca Dofí and Les Aubaguetes, and an earthier, more powerful and darker La Baixada and l'Ermita. This was still difficult to read; perhaps it is going through a difficult phase, with some lactic hints.

A Gran Vinya Classificada and a joy from beginning to end, with a glorious future ahead. It's often difficult to approach the greats with a fair mind, but L'Ermita charms from the first. The aromas are delightfully floral, laden with redcurrants and tangerine peel, plus wild herbs and white flowers. Nothing is overdone here – it's so elegant. In the mouth it's fresh and crisp with abundant red cherries, run through with the savoury, mineral notes of the terroir. The tannins add fine texture and grain. A superbly long finish. This really is a wine to mediate over.