Hermitage white 1997 - Jean-Louis Chave

Hermitage white 1997 - Jean-Louis Chave

95/100 Parker

Cellaring : You can drink it now.

By Jeb Dunnuck in 2015 : "A vintage that Jean Louis thinks is the best to drink today, the 1997 Hermitage Blanc is elegant and silky, with the classic minerality, honeyed citrus, orange blossom and licorice characteristics that these wines always exhibit at maturity. Medium to full-bodied, balanced and seamless, it still has plenty of mid-palate depth and should continue to drink nicely for another 5-10 years, but don't wait too long here."

For JL Chave's white wine, the grapes are vinified in a combination of 33% French oak barrels and 67% stainless steel vats. The Chave Hermitage Blanc blend is almost always 80% Marsanne and 20% Roussanne.

After fermentation, the wine is racked from its fine lees. The wines are then matured in a combination of new and used French oak barrels, with a small proportion also matured in stainless steel vats for 18 months before bottling. For the JL Chave Hermitage Blanc, production averages around 1,250 cases per year.

Chave owns 14 hectares of vines in Hermitage. 10 hectares are planted with Syrah and are used to produce 2 Hermitage Rouge wines, JL Chave Hermitage and Chave Cuvee Cathelin. The vines are old, with an average age of 50 years, give or take a few years. The remaining 4 hectares of vines are planted with 80% Marsanne and 20% Roussanne. The vines for their white Rhône wine are even older than those for their red wine, being mostly over 60 years old. The key to the beauty and complexity of JL Chave Hermitage comes from their mastery of blending. While for the red wines, the only grape used is Syrah, the wine is made from a blend of fruit sources that come from some of the best parcels in the entire Hermitage appellation.