- BrandDomaine Jean-Louis Chave
- CountryFrance
- RegionRhone
- TypeWhite Wine
- Size750ml
- SKU 210000028715
Professional Ratings
Wine Spectator
“Complex layers of heady apple and quince unfurl alongside toasted hazelnut, acacia and smoked green herb notes in this concentrated, gorgeous white. Saline, bitter mineral elements cut through for a chiseled finish, which stretches way out. New details -- verbena, straw, crushed flint, baking spices -- emerge with each revisit to the glass. Marsanne and Roussanne. Drink now through 2038. 1,100 cases made, 125 cases imported.”
Highlights
Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc 2021
Chave is the greatest producer in Hermitage. His family has been making wine there since the 1400s. The current proprietor is Jean-Louis, and the Domaine’s full name is Domaine Jean-Louis Chave, but this is in honor of his grandfather, who bore the same name.
Chave is a true believer in blending, and his red wine is produced from numerous vineyards, though the backbone comes from Bessards. He is not a full-blown traditionalist, preferring to de-stem most of his fruit, fermenting mostly in smaller casks and steel, rather than the traditional open wood casks, and aging his wines in small, Burgundy-sized barrels of 228L (though only a small portion of those barrels are new).
Chave's Hermitage combine purity with grandeur. They speak clearly and with intensity. Grand vintages age effortlessly; weaker vintages always surprise — even 1996s and 2002s, bad vintages both, are shockingly good wines, though for drinking at a younger age to be sure.
Crititcal Acclaim
95 Jeb Dunnuck
Recently bottled, the 2021 Hermitage Blanc is a brilliant wine that shows a fresher, more mineral-driven style while still clearly being in the classic Jean-Louis concentrated, textured style. White currants, crushed citrus, flowers, green almond, and a kiss of reductive-like minerality all define the aromatics, and if you called this a great Grand Cru White Burgundy in a blind tasting, I wouldn't hold it against you. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and beautifully balanced, with a terrific salinity on the finish, it's going to benefit from a year or two of bottle age and I suspect evolve for 20-25 years.