TN: 1983 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

WINE TALK
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  • 1983 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage (7/3/2009)
    Two different bottles of this wine (from two different cellars) were enjoyed, separated by one week. The first tasting was double-blind, the second was unblinded and served with porcini mushroom risotto. My notes are comparable for both tastings, although the consumption of this wine with the risotto was a match made in heaven! The providers of the bottles carefully poured but did not decant the wine. I would strongly recommend decanting, as my first glass was superior to later pourings (by virtue of the lack of sediment). Medium-to-deep garnet with brick rim. Clean, intense and very complex bouquet of saddle leather, cocoa, mushrooms and cigar box, still retaining enough fruit to keep the wine alive. The full middle leads to a long and complex finish. Drink now-12/11. (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Cheers!

Colin [cheers.gif]

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This wine can be extremely bretty…sounds like you had 2 very nice bottles.

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Yea I had a pristine bottle but found it way past it’s prime.

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I had this wine about a year ago and really enjoyed it.

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FYI – There were multiple tranches of this wine, released over several years, and because this long predates the EU’s lot numbering requirement, it’s hard to know which wine one is drinking unless you bought it on release and kept a record.

My last bottle, downed two years ago, was classic, though thinning just a bit (I gave it 91+). I bought it in the provincial liquor store in Vancouver in 1985. The other bottle I had from Vancouver was even better, and still young in 2002 (93+). But a bottle bought in New York around the same time was going over the hill in 2004.

I remember seeing another batch appear on the market a year or two after I bought mine, which almost certainly was not the same bottling. No one in the Rhone was much fussed about consistency in those days, so even disregarding storage, it’s no surprise if people have had very different experiences.

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Interesting comments. FWIW, the bottle contributed to the double-blind tasting was purchased by one of the tasters from WineBid. The bottle consumed unblinded at the restaurant with the porcini risotto was purchased by our guest (a different guy) from a retailer in Los Angeles (the name of which he could not recall). Both bottles were in good condition. However, I am a big believer that, with respect to a wine this age, there are no good wines, just good bottles.

BTW, this is why 99% of the wines in my cellar were purchased upon release and stored in pristine fashion…takes some of the guesswork out of it, although I have certainly had my share of corked bottles. [cry.gif]

Colin [cheers.gif]