2013 L'Hermitage

Jean-Louis Chave's decades-long Saint-Joseph project is finally coming into its final form. The finishing touches were being applied to his updated facility in the Clos Florentin during my visit in late December. Vines have been and are being planted on a steeply terraced south-facing hillside at the south end of Mauves, and Chave told me that he could, maybe, possibly, be ready to bottle two different Saint-Josephs sooner than later, one from Bachasson and the other from the Clos Florentin. But he is no hurry, he said, adding that "this has taken so much time and energy, why rush things now?"

Jean-Louis Chave calls 2012 "a classic year for white Hermitage because the wines have weight, energy and great mineral expression," not to mention that they’re built to age. The 2013 white wine, which was still awaiting final blending and bottling when I visited here in December, is even more minerally but at this early stage doesn't seem to possess quite the depth or power of its younger sibling. I look forward to checking it out in bottle next winter. As for the 2012 vintage for red wine, Chave thinks that despite the wines' forward fruit and supple texture, "there are good tannin underneath and there's very good balance as well. The tannins might not be there for really long aging but that doesn't mean that the wines should be drunk too young." The best 2013s, he believes, happened "if the grower was patient enough to wait and harvest late, without being scared of the weather changing too fast." Those who did so made wines that he called "classic in structure and balance but not in richness, so they should not be buried to deep in the cellar." Chave's commitment to Saint-Joseph continues to bear fruit, as it were, with each vintage here revealing wines of greater depth and complexity, not to mention aromatic interest. The family has gone whole hog on trying to maximize the potential of the granitic soils of the appellation and Jean-Louis would like to think that a long time from now he'll be the Chave who is remembered for bringing Saint-Joseph "up to where it belongs and not just a 'little' Hermitage."