1998 Ermitage Le Pavillon

My annual tasting at Chapoutier is always something of a marathon, what with the growing number of special limited bottlings and the array of Northern Rhone whites demanding attention. The tasting generally begins in Chapoutier airy tasting room with a succession of bottled and not-yet-finished whites, then continues with a large collection of finished and unfinished reds. Then a quick walk to Chapoutier's cellar on a side street of Tain l'Hermitage, where the producer's top limited-bottling reds rest comfortably in barriques I was not able to taste with Michel Chapoutier this year and thus cannot report his comments on the '99 vintage. But I came away with the distinct impression from his associates that he considers the '99 reds from the Northern Rhone to be among the best wines he has made to date. Unfortunately, the 1999 samples from Chateauneuf du Pape and Gigondas were underwhelming in November, and it was unclear how long prior to my visit they had been drawn from barrel. So my notes on these wines should be taken as provisional; I will report on the bottled wines next year.

Michel Chapoutier continues to introduce stunning old-vines bottlings that relatively few wine lovers will get a chance to taste owing to their scarcity and breathtaking prices. But even the Chapoutier wines offered in large quantity are better than ever: thanks to the firm's new bottling line, completed for the '98s, large cuvees that once took a month to bottle can now be finished in a week, thereby minimizing bottle variation.