2010 L'Hermitage

The hotel boasts two restaurants, the two Michelin-starred La Pyramide and a bistro, L’Espace PH3. On the first night, attendees convened at the bistro in order to mine its eye-boggling wine lists, and the following day, the second part of the Chambertin tasting was accompanied by a specially prepared menu in the flagship restaurant.

It was an outstanding evening of fine food, fine wine and even finer friendship. Medlar delivered yet again, not just in terms of the impressive standard of cooking that complemented these bottles with aplomb, but particularly the sommelier team that handled all these bottles with care, skill and all-important smiles.

In Jean-Louis Chave's opinion "2011 was a year where the fruit came easily but not the texture, so we're focusing on building structure into the wine as we blend and emphasizing the vineyards that can contribute the most possible."He explained that the problem was the result of "having summer in the spring and spring in the summer, so the fruit came on quickly but the cold summer slowed tannin buildup."The frequent rains of the growing season throughout the northern Rhone were especially hard on low-lying and flatland vineyards, he said, noting that "it's a classic year where you see the value of hillside sites because some fantastic fruit was produced in those sites."Yields were "horrible" in 2011 and he knows that people will be screaming about reduced allocations "but there's only so much wine to spread around."Speaking of reduced allocations, Chave said that although 2010 would be a great year for a Cuvee Cathelin, yields were so low that he couldn't justify possibly cutting into the production of the classic cuvee "to make a tiny production of Cathelin that would also make people frustrated."He summed up 2010 as a vintage "that's all about purity and definition; the wines will live for a really long time."

"The only problem with 2010, and it's a big one," said Jean-Louis Chave, "is that production was down by 50% of normal because of the rain at flowering."He went on to describe the vintage as bright in character, saying that, in comparison "2009 is more angular, with the tannins not yet in harmony with the other parts of the wine."Chave's syrah vines are up to a century old and he is a firm believer in the primacy of massalle selection "because the newer clones are all fruit, without the violet character that defines--or defined--the variety."He noted that working with new oak is always tricky "because if the wood hasn't been properly seasoned, then the wood tannins will overwhelm the fruit tannins and throw the balance completely off, and even age won't make everything come back together.The bitter, raspy tannins won't integrate and will always stand out."