2006 L'Hermitage

Jean-Louis Chave was away the evening that I visited the estate's cellars in Mauves so I tasted through this year's wines with his wife, Erin, and his father, Gerard. Gerard, who is now in his early 70s, is fully retired but stays close to the wines and vines when he isn't off fishing, cooking or eating-which he told me he does as much as possible. Some people have asserted there has been a change in the oak regimen chez Chave but Gerard shrugged and told me that nothing has changed: "About 15% new oak every year because we replace the casks every seven years. Maybe people are confusing riper vintages with more oak."

Jean-Louis Chave told me he considers 2007 to be an interesting vintage, despite a bad August. "The wines are supple and precise at once, with very sweet fruit. The warm and windy September was a huge blessing for us. I like 2007 because we got the flesh that we want but also very good precision. The danger with Hermitage is that it can get so warm here that the wines are loose, even flabby. " Chave is also fond of 2006: "There's very good juiciness, minerality and freshness to the wines, but strength too. They remind me a lot of 1991. " He described the last three vintages in shorthand: "2007 is fruit, 2006 is minerals and 2005 is power. " Incidentally, the 2006 Hermitage was only partly assembled when I visited in mid-November as Chave felt the wine was benefiting from a lengthier elevage. Talking about the 1991s prompted Chave to open that vintage's Hermitage Blanc, which offers a compelling blend of richness and vivacity, with lively citrus and smoky honey qualities. To my palate it is just coming into maturity and has miles to go.

"Two thousand six is a very good vintage but it is by no means an amazing one," said Jean-Louis Chave as we began our tour of the cellar. Chave, incidentally, believes that his 2005 Hermitage blanc is a wine for the ages. "It will shut down like crazy," he said, "but it will turn out to be a truly great wine, if you have the patience to wait 25 years, if not more." He also told me that, except in special years, "which doesn't just mean the ripest ones," he would never make anything but a single wine. "If all of the cuvees are running at the same speed I can't imagine a reason not to make a single Hermitage," he explained.