TN: 2016 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage (France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage)

• 2016 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage (4/4/2019)
  #17495. This is different than the 2015. The nose is initially smoky, with a fair bit of oak and a big whiff of spice, but then it opens into these beautiful red fruits. This is an Hermitage of a decidedly more delicate and lithesome style. The immense fruity flesh of the 2015 isn’t here at all: the structure here is more exposed, there is more sinew and definition in this wine. Plenty of acidity here, with the fresh and youthful red fruit playing a big part on the palate as a counterweight to the spicy, oaky qualities. It’s obviously young and unresolved with plenty of tannin, but there should be ample material for aging. Against the lower oak Rhones worth a damn ™, this will probably not show that same elegance, and the higher oak treatment will stick out (or am I just hedging based on the performance of the 2015 last year?). I digress – there is a lot to love about this wine, and at age 3, any assessment is justifiably ludicrous and needs to be taken with a huge slab of Himalayan pink salt. But the die is cast with my relatively large stash, and I am certain my faith will be rewarded. (93 pts.)

If not your faith, then your bank account might when you can sell these for the multiples of $250 bought-and-paid for. Long live the Blue Chips!

Who said dropping your aitches was fine?

And does Himalayan pink salt actually taste different from regular salt

Hints of yak

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