Delas, Les Launes, Crozes-Hermitage, Rhône, 2010

Tasting: Crozes-Hermitage 2010

Dumb nose. Rich, dense,and chewy, quite an old-fashioned and extracted style, yet has rude vigour and ample acidity. Elegant it’s not, but it has a certain integrity. Long robust finish.

Tasting: Crozes-Hermitage 2010

Attractive nose marries blackberry fruit to hints of spice and the savoury ; the palate is equally beguiling, with plenty of extract and assertive tannin, but a core of agreeable fruit, mainly from the darker end of the spectrum, which is not without promise.

Tasting: Crozes-Hermitage 2010

Air of reduction in a stewed fruit bouquet, needs decanting to free it and unleash a clearer air. Touch of rubber, flowers, classic northern Rhone Syrah. The palate holds mulberry style fruit, is gummy and the tannins are closely sealed into it. Ends on a lip-smacking roundness. Pretty good, is long and sustained, offers plenty for the drinker.