2017 L'Ermita, Álvaro Palacios, Priorat, Spain

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Medium Bodied
  • Grenache
Ready - youthful (Drink 2025 - 2047)
Luis Gutiérrez
98/100
Product: 20178004950

Free standard delivery on orders over £200

In Bond purchases can be stored in our temperature-controlled warehouse

Covered by our quality guarantee

2017 L'Ermita, Álvaro Palacios, Priorat, Spain
Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2017
Maturity Ready - youthful (2025 - 2047)
Grape List Grenache
Body Medium Bodied
Producer Alvaro Palacios

Critics reviews

Luis Gutiérrez 98/100

There is even more Cariñena in this warm vintage, and the varietal breakdown of the 2017 L'Ermita comes to a majority of Garnacha but with a notable 20% Cariñena and some 2% of white grapes. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in oak vats and matured in oak barrels of different sizes for 16 months. The grapes were picked on the 18th of October, which is extremely late considering that 2017 was their earliest harvest ever!

It has a surprisingly high percentage of Cariñena, the highest ever for L'Ermita, yet the wine feels like the essence of a Mediterranean Garnacha—floral, expressive, open, insinuating, refined and elegant. It has great depth and refined tannins and feels light on its feet, yet it's full of inner power, intense and persistent. It's detailed, nuanced, clean, transparent, focused and pure.

The flavors are very precise and clean and the aftertaste extremely long. A truly great L'Ermita, again, transcending the conditions of the vintage. They got 15.2 hectoliters per hectare. 2,900 bottles were filled in May 2019. This will be the first wine to carry the new Priorat classification Gran Viña Clasificada, the equivalent of a Grand Cru in Burgundy.

Drink 2019 - 2030

Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (Aug 2019)

About this wine

Grenache/Garnacha

Grenache (Noir) is widely grown and comes in a variety of styles. Believed to originate in Spain, it was, in the late 20th century, the most widely planted black grape variety in the world. Today it hovers around seventh in the pecking order. It tends to produce very fruity, rich wines that can range quite widely in their level of tannin. In many regions – most famously the Southern Rhône, where it complements Syrah and Mourvèdre, among other grapes – it adds backbone and colour to blends, but some of the most notable Châteauneuf du Pape producers (such as Château Rayas) make 100 percent Grenache wines. The grape is a component in many wines of the Languedoc (where you’ll also find its lighter-coloured forms, Grenache Gris and Blanc) and is responsible for much southern French rosé – taking the lead in most Provence styles. Found all over Spain as Garnacha Tinta (spelt Garnaxa in Catalonia), the grape variety is increasingly detailed on wine labels there. Along with Tempranillo, it forms the majority of the blend for Rioja’s reds and has been adopted widely in Navarra, where it produces lighter styles of red and rosado (rosé). It can also be found operating under a pseudonym, Cannonau, in Sardinia.
Find out more

Álvaro Palacios

Álvaro Palacios, whose family owns the prestigious Rioja Bodega, Palacios Remondo, spent two years at Château Pétrus before setting up on his own in Priorat in 1989. From the outset, he set out to produce world-class wines using fruit from extremely low-yielding old vines and applying ultra-modern winemaking techniques.
Find out more

Need help?

  • Contact our customer service team for help placing your order


    Call us on 0800 280 2440


    Available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday

  • Chat with a Berry Bros. & Rudd wine & spirits expert for advice on choosing the perfect bottle.

    A floating button will appear in the bottom right corner of the page, when live chat is available.

Delivery and Quality Guarantee

  • Free delivery on orders over £200.

  • Wines and spirits purchased In Bond from Berry Bros. & Rudd can be stored in our temperature-controlled warehouse.

  • Every bottle sold by Berry Bros. & Rudd is subject to our quality guarantee. If a wine or spirit is corked or faulty, we will replace it.