1997 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle- France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage (4/16/2010)
Second time drinking this in over a month and it was quite delicious, albeit not quite as good as the initial tasting. Opened at roughly 445, double decanted and decanted at the restaurant around 7pm. The wine continued to evolve throughout the night and the best sip was the last. Still has a wonderful complex nose of truffles with some gamey meat. The perfumed cherry aspect which I noticed only began to emerge towards the end of the night which leads me to believe that the wine needs significant aeration to be enjoyed at this stage. Still a fantastic bottle of wine at a relative song given the pedigree, ageability and bottle age. It should only pick up more depth of pitch on the nose and richness on the palate with bottle age. 93+ (93 pts.)
The bottle that showed well in the vertical was opened by Chris Bublitz around 230 in the afternoon, left to audouze for about 2 hours then double decanted until service around 8pm, if that’s helpful.
John, I recently had the 81(?), 95,97,98 and 99. Post a note if you enjoy the 96!
Thanks for the note. I had a bottle of the '97 during a Chapelle vertical dinner back in November and I noted that my last sip was definitely my best and I would agree this will improve with more time. I would also agree with you that this wine is a relative bargain considering you can find it easily in the $60 range. I have a few tucked away and will wait 5 years at least before popping one.
I bought 3 DMs of the 1997 when the devil jumped out of the sky and yanked up my hand at an AMC live auction. I opened one 3 years ago and it was very tight but still good. I’m thinking that they are still on the uphill and willbe so for a while.