2014 Ermitage L'Ermite

Tasting through the extensive Chapoutier range with head winemaker Clément Bärtschi is always a highlight of my visits to the Northern Rhône. Their single-vineyard offerings from Hermitage, both white and red, rank among the appellation's finest, with the 2022 Ermitage Blanc L'Ermite and 2022 Ermitage Blanc Le Méal knocking it out of the park. While the Hermitage reds remain varietal Syrahs, Bärtschi revealed that they began experimenting with co-fermenting white varieties back in 2019. “We are still in the experimental phase, and the results vary quite significantly from one vintage to another in terms of maturity and concentration, which is why we are refining our approach year after year,” Bärtschi explained. Standout wines from other appellations include the 2022 and 2023 Condrieu Côteau de Chéry, as well as the 2022 Saint-Joseph Blanc Les Granits. There were also a few underperformers, such as the 2022 Saint-Joseph Granilites and the 2022 Côte-Rôtie Les Bécasses. Reflecting on recent vintages—2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023—Chapoutier remains in the champions league for both Hermitage and Condrieu, maintains rock-solid quality in Saint-Joseph, Cornas and Saint-Péray, and shows room for improvement in Côte-Rôtie and Crozes-Hermitage.

Chapoutier's winemaker Clément Bärtschi, who guided the usual marathon tasting for me here, said that one thing he'd like to see change is that “people drink these wines, especially the top white ones, so young." The problem, as he sees it, is that “when you open them before they've had at least a year in the bottle, and even more for the reds, what you see is the variety, not the place." So a newly released Condrieu "tastes like Viognier more than where it's from, which is what people are paying for, hopefully." The converse is true as well, he continued, "because old wines can start to merge together stylistically. The challenge is how to catch the wine at the ideal point of freshness and maturity."