Three 1999 Hermitages

I have a wide range of Côte Rôtie in the cellar and have a decent handle on that appellation, which I particularly love. However, my knowledge of Hermitage is very limited. I was under the impression that, as another Northern Rhone made primarily with Syrah, it would bear many similitudes. Well, a tasting of three aged versions yesterday showed this not to be true.

Seeing as the wines were served at a lunch I was hosting, I could not really take detailed tasting notes, so this is just an overview. The wines were served blind, and people present at the meal were avowed Bordeauxphiles. They started off thinking that the three wines were probably left bank Bordeaux and then, with no clue whatsoever, one person piped up “Maybe, but I often find that Hermitage can be mistaken for great Médoc”. Bingo, and hats off to my friend Isabelle.

All three wines were from the 1999 vintage.

The first one, was “Le Gréal” from Domaine Marc Sorrel. This was a big, meaty sort of wine with musky “animal” overtones that may or may not be due to brett. This certainly fit in with the masculine type of Hermitage one reads about. This was the least favorite of the three.

The second was La Chapelle from Jaboulet Aîné. The nose here was sweet, with caramel overtones and not very complex. However, the wine was much more expressive on the palate, smooth and sophisticated. I believe that La Chapelle has changed winemaking considerably since 1999. This bottle was pleasurable, but not exceptional. I will be interested to taste more recent vintages.

The final wine was from Domaine Jean-Louis Chave. Everyone thought this the best of the lot. It showed great depth and distinction, on a par with the finest Bordeaux can produce. This had everything: balance, length, and a wonderful velvety texture.

Hermitage is famous for its longevity, but we felt that, at age 22, all the wines, with the exception of the Chave, were as good as they were ever going to be.

With just 136 hectares of vines, Hermitage is by definition very rare. I would love to visit there one day and get to know the wines better.

Best regards,
Alex R.

Nice lunch and report Alex, thanks for sharing. How would you contrast Cote Rotie and Hermitage? What are the standout consistent differences? Similarities? Thanks!

Alex, out of curiosity, how much air did you give these?

1999 Chave is simply a great wine!
On the other hand I thought that Greal was stronger than La Chapelle 99, the latter lacking in length and complexity, but I haven t had them side by side.
1998-2000 was not a successful period for La Ch.

Rich,

I find Côte Rôtie more aromoatic and feminine, more plush on the palate, and also a wine that comes around much, much sooner.

Greg,

I uncorked the wines three hours before the meal and decanted them one hour before.

All the best,
Alex

Thanks Alex. I had the 99 Le Greal last year, and I think it has quite a bit of life left. As for Jaboulet…to paraphrase Robert, I think the years between 1979 and 2014 were not successful ones for them.

Greg,

I don’t doubt that the 99 Gréal has life left in it, but is it going anywhere better from this point?
If you have any left, I’ll be interesteed to read your notes down the line.
Of course, bottle variation could account for our different perspectives, as well as taste preferences.

Alex R.

I don’t know if you mis-typed the year Greg (maybe not), but Jaboulet La Chappelle were big winners for the property in 89/90. Anything above 1998 was not successful, imho.

I’m being a bit snarky, but I’m not really a fan of the hyped 89 and 90 either, and I had both again this past summer. They’re oaky boring wines imho.

Typo? Not 1979 but 1997 ?
However for me 1997 is very good, 1998 is the 1st weak vintage.

Don’t recall having the 89 (which may be as much of an indictment as any) but the bottle of 90 I opened (good provenance) was foursquare at best.

You’re throwing out quite a few babies with your bathwater there… the 1980 is very nice, and the 1982 is beautiful! Probably the most underrated La Chapelle today IMHO. After they built the new winery, the style changed, but the 1988 is a serious wine. I am also a bit of a 1990-skeptic, having had a great bottle once, but mostly rather roasted, overripe examples, and certainly nothing that could be compared with '78 or, my post-61 favorite, the 1972.

Semi joking but there are two wines that I judge people’s palate honesty. If they have a positive note for

1990 La Chappelle
1990 Vogue Musigny

I know they point chasing or label bias

That’s weird, I have had those PJA 89/90 La Chappelle’s and didn’t care for them either, but thought there was something wrong with me. Only tasted them twice in my life, and both were some years ago.

And yet now - in somewhat limited experiences - I’m kind of enthused about the ‘new’ Jaboulet wines. For many years, I passed on their stuff, and its all reversed now!

I’ve never bought a bottle of 1990 La Chapelle but I’ve had it four times. One was corked, two crappy (one pruny, one possibly heat damaged or just ugly). The fourth time it was genuinely good, though still a shadow of 1990 Chave (which might be the worst Chave between 1989 and 1991 ).

1998 is the first vintage from vine to bottle without Gerard Jaboulet.

I don´t care if you question my palate: all bottles of 1990 La Chapelle I´ve had so far weren´t less than stunning (bought in Germany upon release) - and there were at least 7, if not 8 bottles over 25 years!
No idea of other bottles that travelled elsewhere though …

To go back to the questionable 1979 to 2014 period: 1979 can be outstanding, but I had also one less convincing.
1980 didn´t impress me, but 1982 is fine, and 1983 “can” be outstanding, but I think there are different bottlings.

1985 is probably the best drinking LCh. at the moment, provided a perfect bottle.

1988 is very good, but 1989/90 shine above all vintages.
(TW: Jaboulet did not use much oak then - so “oaky” seems to be wrong)

1991 is also very good, but definitely lighter, fully mature, better drink up.
1995/96/97 are successful, but on a slightly lower level, I prefer the 1996.

1998 to 2000 are quite weak.

2001 is better again (they introduced the 2nd wine), and 2003 is outstanding imho, accepting the vintage characteristics.
I´m not a fan of 2004-06, and 2007 is the 1st vintage made 100% by Frey … the style shifted toward modern,
but 2009/10/11/12 are nothing less than great, though made in the new style and with a lot of new oak.
I can understand that some people dislike these stylistically, but the quality is stunning.
2015 is a great wine, rivaling the 1989, in need of many years.
(not tasted 2013/14/16… so far)

(is there a 2008 LCH? I´ve never seen one)

So to state that 1979 to 2014 isn´t a successful period is wrong imho.

I am always happy to keep drinking older vintages of producers I claim not to love until I’m proven wrong However, for some reason, I drank a lot of Jaboulet this past year, all without success. I had a 1997, the 89, the 90 and just this past month an 83 that tasted shockingly oaky. (I borrowed someone’s glass to smell it to make sure I wasn’t poured the wrong wine.) The 83 was poured next to an 83 Chave and it’s shocking that those two wines came from the same terroir.

Obviously, I have heard the 78 is spectacular and I’ve often joked that I’m willing to pretend to move my birthyear back a year if people will bring that, so I’m entirely open to changing my mind. But I’ve just not had a good one. I also freely acknowledge that this may be both bad luck, bad storage, bottle variation - etc. But to me, these bottles don’t taste corked, or head damaged or off - they’re kind of like Leoville las Cases - never ready. And the couple of 79s I’ve had were over the hill.

I had the 16s at a tasting and bought some because the price was attractive (and also because you had to trip over yourself to get that vintage wrong in the northern Rhone, imho). My issue with buying Jaboulet now is that they should be priced a bit like an up and coming producer because they’ve had a change in ownership and had made bad wines for some time, but are instead priced as a premier producer because it’s Hermitage and they supposedly made great wines 30 years ago. Choosing between Jaboulet and, say, Jamet, is not a hard call at the same price.

Robert, I’m certainly not questioning your palate, but I think it’s also clear our palates are quite different; I’d have a very hard time drinking a “modern” Hermitage with a ton of new oak and calling it great. I stand by my statement, and I also think “not much oak” is relative