2001 L'Hermitage

Jean-Louis Chave smiled when I asked him about his latest destemming practices. “That's the number one question these days. In the past, I was always asked about new oak proportions. Both aspects are very interesting, though, because new oak, as well as destemming, has a direct impact on wine style. For my Saint-Joseph, I usually keep a small proportion of stems. What’s interesting is that whenever I use whole clusters in fermentation, the grapes are grown on very granitic soils. As soon as there's a bit of clay in the soil, I destem. In Hermitage, it's more complicated because, historically, winemakers generally destemmed all their grapes. These days, I usually add some whole clusters from the Les Béssards lieu-dit because these soils are very granitic. In my opinion, stems introduce a bit of rusticity to Syrah and a hint of tannin astringency. But at the same time, I feel that stems positively contribute to a wine’s freshness. As temperatures rise – especially in the Rhône Valley – winemakers need to find methods to preserve freshness, and keeping some stems can help with that. It's complicated, though, because even though stems provide aromatic freshness, it deacidifies the wines. Historically speaking, there have been great wines with whole cluster fermentation and great wines that used fully destemmed fruit. Take Henri Jayer from Burgundy, for example; he absolutely hated stems.” In 2021, Chave fully destemmed nearly all his grapes because the stems weren’t fully ripe. It was a rather complicated vintage because although there was ripeness, dilution was also present. Chave continued, “Add rainwater to ripeness. Not last-minute rain, not rain just before harvest, but regular rain from the beginning of the growing season. Two thousand twenty-one is interesting because, without the dilution, we might have achieved 15% natural alcohol. If you think about it, smaller vintages of the past couldn’t achieve such ripeness. In 2021, we went much further in ripeness, but there was some dilution. I never saw this before because there are rainy vintages like 2002, 2008 or 2014, where the grapes struggled to ripen; 2021 is a vintage where the grapes ripened, but with water. And fortunately, the heavy rainfalls during the winter of 2021/2022 helped prepare the soils for the hot and dry 2022 vintage.” Taking a closer look at what’s in the glass, Chave’s wines continue to shine with class, clarity and refinement. Interestingly, the quality difference between 2021 and 2022 is almost nonexistent for the white Hermitages, as opposed to the reds. In the latter case, 2022 has a clear edge over 2021. The whites may end up achieving the same quality, although they are different in style. Both the Saint-Joseph, as well as the Saint-Joseph Clos Florentin, are shaping up nicely in 2022. In 2022, the vines generally accumulated less sugar in their berries compared to other warm and sunny vintages (like 2018 or 2019) and it was harder for sugar levels and phenolic ripeness to converge. To conclude this visit, Chave pulled the cork of a refined 2001 Hermitage, currently sitting in an excellent drinking spot.

Gerard Chave picked a tiny crop (25 hectoliters per hectare) of superripe fruit at the beginning of September, later than most of his colleagues in Hermitage. "An elevated pH is not a problem if there's the glycerine to compensate for it," Chave told me in November. And there is no arguing with the extraordinary richness of Chave's red and white wines in 2003. As always, I tasted the young wines in their various components. A sample of wine from the lieu-dit Bessards was the best single barrel of young Hermitage I've tasted in recent memory. As to the 2003 blanc, Chave compares it to earlier vintages like 1961 and 1952, but he admits that the new year is really without precedent. It's hard to imagine another Hermitage producer offering 2003s with this magical combination of sweetness and verve. The wines are legends in the making.

Tasting at Chave in November, though always a treat,x000D gives only an approximation of the quality - and style - of the 14-month-oldx000D vintage in barrel. Indeed, Gerard Chavex000D reminds me every year that the ultimate blend, which in the case of the 2001x000D will not be made until March, will be a wine unlike any component I tastex000D during my visit. And the finished wine,x000D Chave maintains, has a way of being better than any of its components, partlyx000D due to the fact that the Chaves sell off barrels that don't fit into thex000D blend. That said, the young 2001 looksx000D to be a worthy successor to the splendid 2000.