2008 L'Hermitage

Jean-Louis Chave led off our annual tasting by comparing his 2009 red wines to the estate's 1988s. "It's a vintage that combines power and balance. The wines are rich but not roasted, with very good purity and a tightness that suggests that they will age well," he told me. He observed that "the heat of the 2009 summer caused nitrogen in the grapes to drop, especially in low-lying and hot sites, which means that a lot of people who like to use ambient yeasts weren't able to do that." [Note: yeasts require a certain level of nitrogen in the grapes to survive, and if that level is too low there must either be an addition of nitrogen or the introduction of a cultured yeast that can get the job done.] Chave calls 2008 "an awful growing season that I'd like to forget. Every problem you could imagine happened: rain at flowering, then mildew which seemed to come up all season, and then rain at the end of August as we were gearing up for harvest. Thankfully we had three weeks of completely dry weather starting after the early September rain so the grapes were able to attain full maturity. Chave would also like to forget 2008 when it comes to his white wine, not because of the wine itself but because "it was the smallest production we've had in a long time." He told me that the biggest concern he has when making white wine is getting brightness and purity. "Richness is a given and heaviness is a danger with white Hermitage. We never do battonage and we try to keep movement of the wine to a minimum and to preserve the carbonic gas, which helps retain freshness and minimizes the need for sulfur." Jean-Louis added that "there's great syrah in a number of places in the Rhone but white Hermitage is utterly unique because of its marriage of power and finesse and especially its ability to age."

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."