Founded 160 years ago in the heart of the northern Côtes du Rhône, Delas Freres today crafts world class wines from both northern and southern Rhône.
Tending the steep sloping vineyards, which total some 30 hectares of vines, the team adapt their growing practices to each plot of vines to let the terroir of the Rhône shine through in the wines.
Crafted by winemaker Jacques Grange (who is originally from Burgundy), the wines from Delas Freres epitomise finesse and elegance. Recent vintages from the vineyards of Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Côte Rôtie, Condrieu, Côtes-du-Rhône and Côtes-du-Ventoux have bee lauded in the press for their intensity of flavour and excellent value.
The Hermitage “Les Bessards” is named after a sub-region of the Hermitage appellation, where the steeply terraced hillside vineyards have an excellent southwestern exposure. Those vineyards produce some of the world’s most intense, dense wines from the rich Syrah varietal. Delas owns 25 acres in this prized region, which is a large amount by Rhône standards. This cuvée is a vineyard plot selection. The grapes come exclusively from the oldest plot within the renowned area of “Les Bessards” in the heart of the Hermitage slopes. This wine is only produced during the very best years and the production is deliberately limited to 6,000 bottles (75 cl.) per year
The soils are a combination of granite with alluvial quaternary delta deposits and Pliocene marl. This diversity explains the numerous names given to the various vineyard plots within the appellation: Bessards, Greffieux, Méal, Roucoule, Beaumes, etc. The vineyards are south-facing and protected from the north winds. The slopes are well exposed to the sun.
Harvesting for “Les Bessards” is entirely manual and occurs when the grapes show optimum ripeness. Fermentation takes place in traditional, open-topped concrete tanks after two days of pre-fermentary skin contact at cool temperatures. Fermenting continues at controlled temperatures of 82°F to 86°F (28°C to 30°C). Daily cap punching and pumping over are carried out for about 10 days, with a total maceration period of up to 20 days. Maturation lasts between 12 and 14 months in oak barrels, which are new or have already held one wine. These are regularly racked in order to provide the tannins with enough oxygen for an optimum maturing.
The 2020 vintage of Hermitage in the Rhône Valley was characterised by a challenging yet rewarding growing season. A warm spring led to early budburst, followed by a dry and hot summer. While yields were lower due to drought conditions, the quality of the Syrah grapes remained high, producing wines with concentrated fruit, refined tannins, and good acidity. 2020 Hermitage displays a balance between power and finesse, with dark fruit flavors, spice, and minerality. Though approachable in its youth, this vintage also shows potential for aging, reflecting the resilience of the region’s terroir and winemaking expertise.
The wine is a brilliant, deep red hue with lots of depth. The nose shows great class, with soft aromas of blackberries and violets. Hermitage “Les Bessards” shows plenty of concentration in its fruit. This is a wine with a particularly dense tannic structure, and extremely good balance.
This wine pairs well with red meats, rare or medium cooked - game, marinated meats and spicy stews. This wine needs at least three years cellaring before it can open up its complexity. After this time, it should be decanted before serving. It is recommended you open the bottle one to three hours before drinking.
97+; Jeb Dunnuck, March 2024
The 2020 Hermitage Les Bessards is a behemoth, with palate-saturating levels of fruit and texture while it still stays pure, focused, and mineral-laced, with a classic Hermitage personality. Blue fruits, truffle, burning embers, sappy spring flowers, and liquid rock-like notes all define the aromatics, and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, ripe, polished, yet building tannins, and a gorgeous finish. As with all of Jacques’ wines today, there’s a certain polish and accessibility, yet this incredible Hermitage deserves 5-7 years in the cellar, and I’d be shocked to see it not have 30 years of overall longevity.
95+; John Gilman, September 2023
The 2020 les Bessards bottling from Delas Frères is a stunning young bottle of Hermitage. Like its Hermitage brethren in the cellar this year, it lists at 14.5 percent in the sunny summer of 2020. As Delas owns ten hectares of vines in the lieu à dit of les Bessards, this bottling is a selection of their oldest vine parcels and is only produced in top vintages. The wine offers up a deep and nascently complex nose of black raspberries, sweet cassis, pepper, roasted meats, dark chocolate, lavender, a great foundation of stony soil, cigar smoke and a deft framing of new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a rock solid core of fruit, superb soil signature, ripe, fine-grained tannins and excellent length and grip on the poised and seamlessly balanced finish. This is an absolutely great bottle of young Hermitage that will be very elegant once it is ready to drink! 2037-2085+
95; Wine Spectator, February 28, 2023
Rock-solid, with a core of clearly defined red and black cherry compote flavors that bristle with energy, as apple wood, savory and anise notes sparkle throughout. A racy graphite spine drives the finish, where a long, lingering twang of iron plays out amid the fruit. Best from 2024 through 2038.
95-97; The Wine Advocate, January 2022
Looking terrific out of barrel, the 2020 Hermitage Les Bessards boasts classic aromas of crushed stone, black cherries and cassis on the nose. It’s full-bodied, perhaps a touch warm, but with wonderfully silky, rich tannins and a long, licorice-tinged finish. It should drink well for close to two decades.
96; Decanter, September 30, 2021
Full-bodied, fine and tightly wound, but with a good sense of harmony and typicity. Stretching skywards, this is a tense, saline style but with sufficient fat around the bones to make for a long-lasting wine. You can really feel the granite. From their oldest parcel of lieu-dit Les Bessards, fermented in concrete, then aged for 12 months in new and one-year-old barrels.
Hermitage AOC
100% Syrah
Cork
Yes
Yes
