| Region of production: | Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Saint-Joseph, Côte-Rôtie |
| Winery Location: | Saint-Jean-de-Muzols |
| Year Established: | 1835 |
Vineyard Holdings
6.48 ha
Hermitage: 10 ha total (6.5 ha owned, 3.5 ha leased from the Marquise de la Tourette); 9 ha of Syrah, 1 ha Marsanne and a splash of Roussanne, spread between each of three plots
- Les Bessards: 7ha, mostly Syrah; oldest vines planted in 1946; granite soil
- Les Grandes Vignes: 2.5 ha
- L’Hermite: 0.5 ha
Crozes-Hermitage
- Les Chassis: 12 ha Syrah, planted in the late 1980s; soil is alluvial stones and clay
- Clos-Saint-Georges: 5 ha Syrah, with the oldest vines planted 1950; 1 ha Marsanne; soil is clay lime over alluvial stones
Saint-Joseph
- Côte Sainte-Épine: 1.1 ha Syrah and 0.3 ha Marsanne, planted in the 1930s; hard granite soil
- L’Olivet: 0.65 ha Syrah, planted in 1988; hard granite soil
Top Wines Produced
- Hermitage “Domaine des Tourettes”: since 2009, this is the name for the 100% Syrah bottling formerly known as “Marquise de la Tourette,” produced exclusively from Delas’s three Hermitage lieux-dits
- Hermitage “Les Bessards”: produced only in top vintages and sourced from the 1946 plantings on Les Bessards
- Hermitage Blanc “Marquise de la Tourette“: 95% Marsanne, 5% Roussanne; from vineyards planted in 1912 and the 1950s
- Crozes-Hermitage “Le Clos”: single parcel selection of 100% Syrah from Clos-Saint-Georges
- Saint-Joseph “Sainte-Épine”: from the old vines on Côte Sainte-Épine, only made in top vintages
- Côte-Rôtie “La Landonne”: fruit purchased from Maurice Bruyère (son-in-law of Michel Delas); 100% Syrah planted in early 1950s
- Côte-Rôtie “Seigneur de Maugiron”: 100% Syrah sourced from 40% Maurice Bruyère holdings and 60% purchased fruit
Inaugural Vintages
- Hermitage “Les Bessards” in 1990; Cote-Rotie “La Landonne” in 1997
Average Total Production
- 1,680,000 bottles
Summary
Delas is a historic Northern Rhône house that, thanks to ownership changes, weathered some difficult periods from the 1970s to early 1990s. In 1977, the Delas family sold the house to Champagne house Deutz, who then sold to Champagne’s Louis Roederer in 1993. It was the arrival of winemaker Jacques Grange in 1997 that brought Delas back into the conversation of the top Northern Rhône producers. Grange revamped the winery: He eliminated the large, old cooperage in favor of barriques; he installed smaller concrete fermenters to vinify parcels individually; he quit using cultured yeasts and began replanting vineyards with selections massales to better express the local terroir.
Style & Vinification Techniques
The Delas wines are clean and modern across the range. All wines are fermented with native yeasts. The whites are fermented in stainless steel, with the exception of the barrel-fermented Hermitage Blanc “Marquise de la Tourette”. The reds are 100% de-stemmed, fermented in concrete tanks with both pigeage and remontage, and aged in barriques (10-20% new). The Saint-Joseph “Sainte-Épine” and Crozes-Hermitage “Le Clos” both see 100% new oak, and the Côte-Roôtie “La Landonne” is aged half in new oak, half in one year old oak.
Producer Website: Delas