Domaine Marc Sorrel
Rouge Classique
Hermitage
2019

The producer

Domaine Marc Sorrel, with its 2.55 hectares of superbly sited parcels on the legendary Hermitage hillside in the Northern Rhône, has a rich history dating back to 1893. Marc Sorrel, who has been at the helm since 1982, has recently handed over the reins to his son Guillaume, who completed his first solo vintage in 2019. Guillaume has risen to the challenge of working the vineyards in a warming climate, crafting profound, structured, and powerful Syrahs using 100% whole bunch fruit and minimal new oak. The estate's flagship wine, Le Gréal, comes from 100-year-old Syrah vines, farmed organically, primarily from Le Méal (90%) and Les Gréffieux (10%). Guillaume's whites, made from 100% old-vine Marsanne, are rich and waxy, maintaining the estate's tradition of excellence.

The wine

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.