2006 L'Ermita, Alvaro Palacios

100% Garnacha in 2006, L’Ermita is made from 60-100 year old vines, farmed at 15 hl/hectare and then aged for 18-19 months in new French barrels. 2006 is the first time that the wine is made exclusively from Garnacha; for me the result is surprisingly supple and approachable. In anticipation of a monolithic monster, a rock of mistanthropic certitude, one is astonished to taste a soft and wonderfully fruity wine, its tannins tightly woven, its colour gently warming and its personality far from hermitic.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)

A jaw-dropping price for Palacios’ Grand Vin, but my God it is a beauty. Pure, tight, and seemingly rather light on the nose at first, the concentration of mineral-infused, slightly smoky red fruit begins to come into focus. The palate has fantastic natural concentration with a great core of intense minerality, around which is layered the sweet fruit and shimmering acidity. Wearing its oak and structure lightly, this is serious stuff and probably fairly invincible.
(88/100 points The Wine Gang - Top 20 BBR Wines - July 09)

100% Garnacha. Sweet oak, soft red fruit, delicate spices, but overall extremely tight on the nose. A kernel of concentrated pure fruit on the palate, savoury spices, leather, liquorice, dried red fruit too, and a meat juice scent. Concentrated but not heavy. Just barely evolving now, very dense and immensely lengthy.
(Richard Hemming - jancisrobinson.com - 16-Jan-2008)