2016 Hermitage La Chapelle 1,5 l Paul Jaboulet Aine
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Tasting notes
Securely settled in for the long haul, brambled dark fruits, griotte cherry, olives, damson, crayon, red pepper, muscular with a curl of gunsmoke and crayon. There are gentle fragrant notes of freshly cut herbs, white pepper spice, rosemary, sage, and as it gathers strength you get orange peel acidities and a ton of personality. A lovely wine that is still young but you can feel the tightrope of the architecture beginning to stretch out. At this point new oak for ageing had been reduced to 20%. Caroline Frey owner and winemaker. Harvest September 26 to October 8.
Critic scores
Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate
The Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Hermitage La Chapelle is also brilliant, and certainly up with the crème de la crème in the vintage. Textbook notes of mulled dark fruits, currants, peppery herbs, smoked meat, licorice, and soy give way to a full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, ripe, seamless wine that doesn't have the density of the 2015, but certainly isn't far off. It's still a baby, yet offers pleasure, and it's going to shine for 30 years or more.
Inky ruby. Intensely perfumed aromas of black and blue fruit preserves, exotic spices, cured tobacco, olive and potpourri are given vivacity by a smoky mineral nuance. Fresh and expansive in the mouth, displaying deeply concentrated boysenberry and cherry liqueur flavors, along with suggestions of candied violet, star anise and bitter chocolate. The floral and mineral notes return on the strikingly long, penetrating finish, which features harmonious tannins and a sweet touch of candied licorice.