2018 Ermitage L'Ermite

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the historic Maison Chapoutier in the Northern Rhône valley and, to a great extent, in the south. Annual production for Chapoutier’s combined projects is now pushing 10 million bottles from over 500 hectares of vines owned or under Chapoutier’s management. That’s up significantly (to say the least) from the roughly 500,000 bottles produced when Michel Chapoutier took control in 1990. The number of lieux-dits offerings from the prime vineyards in the north, which make up the bulk of my coverage, is quite small. Each of their single-site Hermitages is typically from 3,000 to about 6,000 bottles per vintage. Michel Chapoutier’s daughter, Mathilde, and his son, Maxime, are now on board full-time here and are quickly easing into more prominent roles in the company. Winemaking continues to be overseen by the highly talented and experienced Clément Bärtschi, a native of Lyon and trained in Burgundy, at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti no less, before joining Chapoutier in 2010.

Maxime Chapoutier and cellarmaster Clément Bärtschi called 2018 “a kind of interesting vintage because while the wines are ripe, as has become usual, they also have sound acidity, so there isn’t a cooked quality or too much weight, like you get from typical hot years.” The wines are fresher than their 2017 siblings, they said, adding that “they’ll be drinking sooner than the 2017s, which have more weight and structure and also darker fruit character. Those should be held.”