Bernard Faurie Hermitage Bessards Méal 2019

Bernard Faurie Hermitage Bessards Méal is the gold-capsule bottling, a blend of roughly sixty per cent Les Bessards and forty per cent Le Méal assembled at harvest.

Hermitage is the granite hill above Tain on the left bank of the northern Rhône, and its reputation rests on a handful of named sectors. Faurie farms just 0.2 hectares of Le Méal, planted in the 1940s, and near-hundred-year-old vines at Les Bessards. Le Méal, with its direct southerly exposure, is perhaps the warmest site on the hill and gives the most layered and hedonistic wine of the area; Faurie calls it vin noblesse and looks to it for opulence and texture. The Bessards component, from the granite core of the hill, provides what he describes as the skeleton, the structure and mineral drive, along with lifted perfume. As with all of Faurie's reds, the fruit was fermented as whole bunches, and the wine was bottled unfiltered and by hand from two used demi-muids.

A wine for the long haul: give it five years at least and expect decades. Serve at 16-18°C with roast beef, venison or a peppered steak.

*Every effort is made to ensure the current vintage is accurate; however, variations can occur. If you are after a specific vintage, please contact us prior to ordering.