2017 Jean Claude et Nicolas Fayolle Hermitage Les Dionnieres 750 ml

When flawless Northern Rhône tradition meets a fantastic vintage, the results are a 94-96-point 2017 Hermitage that Jeb Dunnuck calls “the complete package.” One of the great Hermitages, the small-production Jean-Claude et Nicolas Fayolle Les Dionnieres doesn’t often make it to U.S. shores, and when it does it is rapidly snapped up by collectors who adore this inky, velvety, resolutely old-school Northern Rhône release. Today, we're thrilled to share it with you.

In 2017, traditionalism in the cellar coincided with a scorching hot vintage to produce a profile in ripe, full-throttle power that had the critics on their feet. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate cheered: “purchasers will be in for a treat.” 

The 19th century wine writer André Jullien famously opined that the three most sublime vineyards in the world were Bordeaux’s Château Lafite, Burgundy’s Romanée-Conti, and Northern Rhône’s Hermitage Hill, which is the only of the three where customer-friendly deals can still be found, even as the wines have grown more exquisite over the last century. 

Father and son team Jean-Claude and Nicolas Fayolle are multi-generation winemakers who tend to just a small stock of land, and just 1.9 acres are on the Les Donnières lieu-dit at the bottom of Hermitage hill, where 40-year-old vines spider into clay and limestone soils above a granite floor. The incline of the slope and ruggedness of the land render mechanical methods of harvest and cultivation moot; everything is done by hand. Abundant sunlight sends concentration soaring but the natural acidity more than matches ripeness, making for titanic, steel-spined wines that can last forever.

The Northern Rhône has experienced a slew of excellent vintages, and 2017 was another one for the books, praised by Rhône expert Jeb Dunnuck as producing wines that are more concentrated than 2016, with “terrific balance and elegance, which gives them a surprisingly light, weightless feel on the palate.”

Today, that translates into a Hermitage that does justice to this region as one of the world’s viticultural treasures, available only to Wine Access members at a historic value.