Appellation · France
Hermitage
A single south-facing granite hill above Tain, and for two centuries the most expensive red wine in France after the Bordeaux first growths.
Full-bodied, dense, dry red with blackberry, black olive, leather and smoke, substantial tannin and a long savoury finish. Needs a decade. Whites are broad, waxy and low in acidity, with almonds and quince.
About Hermitage
Hermitage is one hill, about 136 hectares, rising behind the town of Tain-l’Hermitage. It is the reference point for Syrah, and it was for most of the nineteenth century among the most sought-after and expensive wines in the world.
Red Hermitage is dense, dark and built for decades — blackberry, black olive, leather, smoke and iron over a substantial tannic structure. It is markedly less perfumed and more powerful than Côte-Rôtie, and it takes considerably longer to open.
White Hermitage, from Marsanne and Roussanne, is one of France’s most unusual wines: broad, waxy and nutty when young, and then closing down for a decade before re-emerging as something extraordinary. It is made in very small quantities and rarely understood.
The name comes from a legend about a crusading knight who retired to a chapel on the hill. The chapel is still there and appears on more than one label.
The historical practice of "hermitaging" — adding Hermitage to Bordeaux to give it colour and weight — was widespread in the nineteenth century and openly advertised, which is a useful corrective to any assumption that regional purity is an old value.
What the name means
- Legal name
- Hermitage AOC
- Type
- Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée / Protégée (AOC / AOP)
- Set by
- INAO
- Recognised
- 1937
- Regulates
- Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields, minimum ageing.
The delimited area, permitted varieties, maximum yields, minimum alcohol, pruning and training methods, and in many cases minimum ageing. Administered by INAO.
Red from Syrah, with up to 15% Marsanne and Roussanne permitted; white from Marsanne and Roussanne. Around a quarter of the hill is planted to white varieties.
Grapes
Wines from here
Climate
- Latitude
- 45.1° N
- Temperature
- Warm
- Day–night swing
- Moderate
- Drought risk
- Moderate
The hill faces due south and sits on the left bank, which is unusual — the Rhône turns here, and Hermitage is the one Northern Rhône appellation with a full southern aspect. It is measurably warmer than Côte-Rôtie.
Hermitage has a warm climate with continental and river-moderated influences, at roughly 45.07° of latitude. There is a moderate difference between day and night temperatures. Drought is a periodic constraint. The hill faces due south and sits on the left bank, which is unusual — the Rhône turns here, and Hermitage is the one Northern Rhône appellation with a full southern aspect. It is measurably warmer than Côte-Rôtie.
Vintage variation
Vintage matters somewhat
A dependable climate with occasional difficult years. Most vintages are broadly similar; the exceptions are the ones worth knowing about.
- Latitude. At around 45°, ripeness is usually reached but is not a formality.
- Continental influence. No large body of water to buffer the extremes. Continental places have hotter summers, colder winters and sharper frost risk, all of which widen the gap between years.
Derived from the climate above, not from anyone’s view of particular years. Why there are no vintage scores here.
These are influences on how a wine turns out, not determinants of it. Picking date, yield, vine age and every winemaking decision sit between the climate and the glass.
Soil and geology
- Underlying geology
- Granite at the western end; glacial and alluvial deposits over granite to the east
- Soils
- Decomposed granite in the west, loess and stony alluvium in the east
- Drainage
- Free-draining
- Water holding
- Low
- Heat retention
- High
What it does to the vine. A single hill with markedly different ground along its length. The granite in the west gives the most structured wine; the lighter, sandier eastern end ripens earlier and gives softer fruit — which is why the great Hermitages are blends of several named climats rather than single sites.
WineHQ describes soil in terms of what it demonstrably does — drainage, heat retention, water supply, rooting depth — and not in terms of flavours it is said to transmit. Vines take up ions, not aromas, and no mechanism has been demonstrated by which a mineral in the ground is tasted in the glass. See soil and drainage.
Rules worth knowing
Confirmed in the EU register
Hermitage is registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), file number PDO-FR-A1002, protected at EU level since 1973.
Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013
Specification published: Ares(2022)6680470 · Official Journal
Only the rules that change what to expect in the glass or on the label. WineHQ does not reproduce production specifications, and each entry carries the date it was last checked because appellation rules change.
The designation is confirmed above. WineHQ has not read this appellation’s production specification, so it publishes no yields, ageing minima or permitted-variety lists for it — those come from the document linked above, not from a summary of it.
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Northern Rhône Syrah
Serve at 16–18°C (cool room temperature).
Try with steak au poivre, steak or venison and game.
Where to go next
Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.
- Crozes-Hermitage — The Northern Rhône’s largest appellation, surrounding the Hermitage hill, and the affordable way into the region’s Syrah.
- Cornas — A small suntrap of an appellation making the darkest, most uncompromising Syrah in the Rhône — red wine only, no white, no blending.
- Saint-Joseph — A fifty-kilometre ribbon of vineyard down the right bank, ranging from serious hillside Syrah to very ordinary flatland wine.
- Côte-Rôtie — The northernmost Rhône appellation, on terraces so steep they must be worked by hand, making the most perfumed Syrah in France.
Approximate centroid: 45.07°, 4.84°. WineHQ stores coordinates only where it has them, and does not estimate boundaries it has not sourced.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO) — INAO, France
- Vins du Rhône (Inter Rhône) — Inter Rhône