Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 2016
- Decanter
-
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Generally 100% destemmed, as the Hermitage is meant to be about the expression of the individual vineyards and soils and Jean-Louis believes that stems have a tendency to level out the differences. Fermentation in wood tonneaux and stainless steel tanks. Aged in barriques for 30 months.
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
A good vintage - the problem was the yields,' says Jean-Louis. A tasting of principal component lieux-dits Péléat, La Beaume, Les Bessards, L’Ermite and Le Méal show that quality is high. It doesn't have the same ripe generosity as 2015, but there is still real concentration in the fruit. If anything, it is more elegant, but with a tight tannic structure that points to a Hermitage for long ageing. It may not be as immediately flattering as the sumptuous 2015, but I suspect it will eventually prove more rewarding. This promises to be a truly great Hermitage. 10% new oak.
-
James Suckling
Very floral and just settling in with fresh red cherries and blackberries that have real freshness and definition. Great energy here. Very upright and elegantly focused. Dark chocolate and licorice to close. You feel the granite profoundly here. Try around 2028.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the Hermitage releases, this always comes primarily from the Les Bessards lieu-dit yet includes smaller amounts from a number of top vineyards on this magical hillside. The 2016 Hermitage is beautiful and shows the classic style of the vintage beautifully. Notes of crème de cassis, hints of blue fruits, violets, and wet stone all emerge from the glass, and it plays in the full-bodied end of the spectrum, with a pure, polished, seamless texture on the palate. It has plenty of tannins, yet they’re perfectly ripe, it has no hard edges, and a great finish. While aromatically it seems to come from a cooler year, it has the sweet fruit and opulence on the palate of a warmer year. It’s a beautiful wine. Give bottles 5-6 years and enjoy over the following 30 years or more.
-
Wine Spectator
Youthfully tight, this features a cloak of tarry-edged tannins draped over a core of well-steeped red and black currant and blackberry fruit. Long and driven, with notes of humus, black tea, singed alder and tobacco leaf streaming alongside the fruit from start to finish, this ends with a hint of smoldering cast iron. Reserved in style overall, showing serious latent length and cut, this should cruise and blossom in the cellar. Best from 2024 through 2040.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Chave's 2016 Hermitage isn't the most intense or biggest wine this estate has produced, but it's a wonderfully charming, approachable effort from a vintage where quantities were halved by hail damage. Perfumed and spicy, with notes of black olives and black cherries, it's full-bodied, cuddly-soft and velvety in texture, with a long, harmonious finish. I expect it will firm up a little over the next year or two in bottle, but it's delicious now and should mature gracefully for at least 15 years, probably longer. Rating: 96+
Other Vintages
2020-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb - Decanter
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert - Decanter
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine -
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert
Going back to 1481, when the first Jean-Louis Chave was gifted a vineyard in St Joseph by the nobleman Farconnet, 25 generations have farmed some of the best parcels in the Northern Rhône. Though now known as perhaps the best producer of Hermitage (and certainly among the best blenders in the world), the family only expanded to this famous hill during the mid-1800s wave of phylloxera that decimated Europe's vineyards.
In the 1970s, when Gerard Chave took over from his father, the domaine rapidly achieved megastar status due to the extraordinary quality of his wines. Gerard's son Jean-Louis (25th of his name) now oversees the estate and has shown an ever expanding dedication to improving the already stunning quality of these rare wines. Jean-Louis Chave regularly dedicates the domaine to intense and exacting projects, the benefits of which will be seen by future generations. Indeed, the estate employs three full time stonemasons just to repair the traditional stone walls dotting the vineyards.
Since the 1990s, Jean-Louis Chave has offered a second label known as 'J.L. Chave Sélection' that provides a glimpse of the reason for the estate's fame at a fraction of the price. Many of these wines are from declassified estate wine and long term farming contracts, and are vinified in the domaine's primary cellar in Mauves.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
One of the smallest and most important Syrah regions of northern Rhone, Hermitage is practically one single south-facing slope of crushed granite, thinly covered with varied, yet well-charted soil types. Many climats (well identified parcels) exist within Hermitage and while some smaller producers make single climat Syrahs, some larger ones blend to make one balanced expression of the appellation.
Though the AC regulations allow the addition of up to 15% white grapes to a red Hermitage, in practice it is usually made from Syrah alone. Winemaking is pretty traditional—or you might say historic—with hot fermentations and aging in older barrels of various sizes. The best wines, characterized by deep, dense and sexy flavors of black fruit, cocoa, licorice and tobacco, have massive textures and a solid 10-20 years aging potential.
The region of Hermitage is totally enclosed; the only place it could go really is to literally fall down its own hill into the city of Tain or the Rhone River. Soil erosion is a problem and terraces exist alongside the hill in order to keep the earth in place. Crozes-Hermitage encloses the region entirely to its north and south.
While Hermitage seems synonymous with some of the best Syrah on the planet, actually about one third of the wine produced here comes from white grapes. The full, lush and robust Marsanne or the less common, but almost more charming, Roussanne create wonderful whites in which the best have great potential for aging, like the reds.