Gilles Robin Hermitage 2023

Less than 3000 bottles produced from vines planted in 1972 towards the bottom of the lieu-dit Les Bessards. Gilles does all the vineyard work for these vines working organically. The fruit is de-stemmed before a 21-25 day vinification then aging in 2 demi-muids before bottling unfined and unfiltered after 24 months elevage.  This wine is fresh and detailed with old vine intensity expanding on the palate finishing with notable earthy minerality and impressive persistence. Will develop and evolve over a decade or more. Impressively fresh, detailed and intense. A superb representation for this great vineyard.

‘Using grapes from the Les Bessards lieu-dit with its granite and gravel soils, the 2023 Hermitage is outstanding, launching with prominent ripe blackberry, black cherry, white pepper and cedar tones. Mid-volume, nudging toward full, the 2023 is delicious even at this youthful moment, yet I recommend giving it at least three more years to gain further complexity. Only two barriques are filled each year.’ 93 points, Nicholas Greinacher, Vinous, January 2026.

The Robin family have grown grapes in Crozes-Hermitage for generations, but until 1995 they were always sold to the local cooperative in Tain l'Hermitage. Today, Gilles estate bottles his entire production and consistently produces some of the very best wines of this appellation. Gilles has just 15 hectares, however most of those vineyards are fully mature at more than 40 years old.

The estate has several plots of land in the favoured ‘Les Chassis’ district just south of the Hermitage hill. The soils in this area consist of large amounts of smooth pudding stones ‘galets’ and red clay from the route the Rhône river once flowed. These richer clay based soils give a wine that is typically rounder and more generous than from some other areas of the appellation.

Owing to the large amount of mature old vines at this estate most of the wine produced is of the premium “Alberic Bouvet” cuvee. This cuvee is produced from vines averaging 40 years age. Picking is done by hand and yields are kept low at around 38 hl/ha. In the ripest years a small percentage of stems are allowed in the ferment and the wine is aged in barriques (and increasingly in larger 450 litre barrels) for about 15 months with about 15% new barrels used each year.