White and Rosé Wines for Spring

wines

The 2020 Ermitage Ex Voto Blanc brings another level of everything, and this is a quintessential, legendary Hermitage Blanc. Quince, ripe stone fruits, brioche, green almonds, and crushed stone notes all define the aromatics, and this beauty hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a deep, layered, multi-dimensional texture, incredible concentration, and a great, great finish. It’s one of those powerful, opulent whites that stays flawlessly balanced and weightless. Give bottles 4-6 years and enjoy over the following two decades or more.Jeb Dunnuck | 99 JDThe 2020 Ermitage Blanc Ex-Voto cruises at the same high altitude as the 2022. Loaded with succulent citrus fruits, honeysuckle, white peach, vanilla, cedar and underlying reductive elements, the 2020 showcases spot-on balance, vivid intensity and classic Ex-Voto scope. It concludes with a saline aftertaste on the persistent finish.Vinous Media | 96 VMThis is looking very good, it’s very oaky for sure, but there’s good intensity and vibrancy. Long and with no excess alcohol, it’s nicely balanced beneath the oak, but it will always be dominated by it. 80% lieu-dit Les Murets (20-year-old and 60-year-old vines), 20% L’Ermite.Decanter | 96 DECPlenty of vanilla and a touch of coconut, but also deep Mirabelle plums and candied lemons. Very rich and powerful, the serious concentration enabling the wine to easily carry the oak. Then comes the vivid and stony finish that carries you away. Matured in 100% new oak for two years. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 95 JSAnother strong performance for this wine, the 2020 Ermitage Ex Voto Blanc features scents of toasted grain, grilled pineapple and ripe pear. It’s medium to full-bodied, nicely generous and expansive in the mouth, with an extraordinarily long and textured finish.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93-96 RP

An airy nose freely offers up notes of pepper and white flowers along with plenty of pear, apple and quinine hints. There is fine richness to the very round middle weight flavors that exude a subtle minerality on the saline, focused and mildly austere finale. This is not especially complex, but it is indisputably Chablis-like and is a wine that may well develop more depth in time.Burghound | 89-92 BH

The 2020 Chablis Blanchot Grand Cru is far more successful than the Les Clos. It has much more energy and vitality on the nose for a start with fresh green apples, crushed stone, flecks of blood orange and struck flint. Over the course of an hour, you can see it just gain more intensity in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with sharpened acidity, quite vibrant and tensile with oyster shell and light spicy notes percolating through on the finish. This is definitely worth seeking out.Vinous Media | 93 VMMore moderate though hardly invisible oak is present on the cooler and more elegant aromas of white flower, spice and mineral reduction. There is a much more refined, if less powerful, mouthfeel to the punchy and almost delicate flavors that culminate in a citrus, sneaky long and bone-dry finale that is youthfully austere. This also appears to have a much better chance at absorbing its wood.Burghound | 91-94 BH

Aromas of dried lemons, grapefruit, beeswax, seaweed and pears. Excellent focus, with a compact, driven and mineral palate. Biscuity touches, evolving to hints of pie crust, too, on a long finish. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 94 JSLike the Preuses, the wood treatment is agreeably subtle and easily allows the restrained aromas of citrus rind, oyster shell and quinine to be appreciated. The refined, pure and borderline painfully intense larger-scaled flavors exude ample minerality on the saliva-inducing, chiseled and impressively lengthy finish. Promising.Burghound | 92-94 BH