2010 Hermitage La Chapelle

Wine Details
Place of Origin

France

Hermitage

Rhone

Color

Red

Grape/Blend

Syrah/Shiraz

Reviews & Tasting Notes

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Winemaker Jacques Desvernois told me that 2011 got off to an auspicious start thanks to heavy winter snows that replenished the groundwater (a serious concern in the Rhone in recent years), followed by "summer-like" weather in March that pushed budbreak ten days ahead of normal.It was also quite dry but the healthy water levels helped to compensate and as temperatures stayed high the vines were a full 15 days ahead of schedule by the first of June.Conditions held nicely untilthe completely out-of-whack July, "which seemed like March or April," with cold and damp weather "that applied the brakes to maturity."Temperatures crept back up in August but not dramatically, and the season was still over a week ahead of schedule, allowing harvesting to start on September 6 in Crozes and winding up on the 27th at Cornas.Desnervois observed that "the diurnal shifts in 2010 were remarkable up and down the Rhone," pointing out that such conditions allowed the harvest to extend until the very end of October "without having to deal with the drought and heat issues of 2009."The "homogeneous" level of quality across the region is unprecedented, in Jacques' opinion, "which is the true mark of great vintage, where wines at every level are often better than anything before them."

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The Frey family's financial commitment to place Jaboulet at the top of the northern Rhone heap is plainly evident from a quick stroll through the new winery they have constructed by the old one in Point de l'Isere.They are also building a micro-winery in Tain, at the foot of the Hermitage hill, where they will make all of their estate-grown "icon" wines, such as La Chapelle, Thalabert, Roure and so forth.Their seriousness of purpose is also evident in the quality improvement of the wines over the last few vintages, which co-winemaker Jacques Desvernois told me "was the only directive [owner and co-winemaker] Caroline Frey set down.If it isn't excellent, it gets sold or blended away, end of story."This means that production of the top Jaboulet wines, which are reviewed here, has been slashed dramatically, as happened in the difficult 2008 vintage when some wines, like La Chapelle, were not made at all.