Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Red 2018

Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Red 2018

The Chave family has been growing wine in the Northern Rhone since 1481. Jean-Louis joined his father in 1992 and currently represents 16 generations of unbroken lineage committed to the production of some of the finest Syrah, Marsanne, and Roussanne on the planet! The Key to these long-lived wines of great purity, elegance, power, and finesse, is the family’s winemaking pedigree and remarkable blending skills. The Chave family has never released a single vineyard or cru Hermitage instead cultivates the perfect blend of vineyards crafting the most prodigious Syrah wine in the world, year after year.

99 Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

Chave’s 2018 Hermitage is another in a long list of legends to emerge from this meticulously run estate. Showing remarkably complex aromas of pressed violets, ground cloves and cracked peppercorns against a backdrop of cassis, blueberries and licorice, it’s a super effort. Full-bodied, concentrated, rich and velvety in feel, it’s seamless and long—just the complete package in a wine that’s surprisingly approachable, yet should prove capable of aging effortlessly for two decades or more. Best After 2022.

100 Jeb Dunnuck

Lastly, the 2018 Hermitage is still resting in its individual components, and it’s such an education tasting through the samples from Bessards, Péléat, Méal, and Beaumes. In some years, each terroir is easy to see (the spice and complexity from Péléat, the opulence from the Méal, etc.), yet in 2018, the Méal was more structured and inward and the l’Ermite was shockingly opulent and powerful. The crème de la crème was the sample from Les Bessards, and wine doesn’t get any better than that in my opinion. Regardless, all the samples possess incredible quality and show classic, powerful aromatics reminiscent of a classic, almost cooler year paired with massive richness, depth, and structure on the palate. Possibly coming closest in my mind to a hypothetical mix of the 2009 and 2010, this is a legendary Chave Hermitage in the making.