Yann Chave, Hermitage

Really nice and in a very good place now. An elegant Hermitage with balanced power and minerality beneath.

Needed a decant but didn’t get one. Dark colour. Smells meaty and ripe. Bit of clumsy oak sitting on the top but that may resolve with time. The fruit profile seems fairly cooked to me with notes of raisin, stewed plum and sultana. Dark and concentrated palate. Still some oak flavours. Great length driven by a pretty tight, linear structure. Fine sandy tannins. In a good place now. Not sure if cellaring will improve it, or drive those ripe flavours …

Still bearing the deep color from its youth, the wine is loaded with ripe, sweet, peppery, dark red berries, earth and chalky, rocks and stones. There is a solid depth of flavor and plenty of bright, red, spicy fruits in the finish. Another 5 years of cellaring should be perfect for this wine.

Needed two-hour decant to open up and continued improving for another two hours. I'm thinking this will be better with another five years in the bottle but it's lovely now with the imperfections of youth. On the plus side is a simply gorgeous mesquite smoke finish. Medium body and too much green and black pepper, which I guess will mellow with age. I trust JR to find unusual quality and this is no exception. Thanks Garagiste!

Vindredi (Hermitage vs Cote Rotie, and friends) (Bellevue, WA) : Tasted blind. Smoke, dried meat, leather, mint, iodine, and a touch of brett. Beautiful body; deeper, layered fruit and flowers. Balanced finish. Well put together with nice complexity.

RODANO NORD (AIS MILANO) : Degustato alla cieca. Vinosità fermentativa e pepe. Ancora molto chiuso, laccato, verniciato e monocorde sul frutto scurissimo, macchiato d' inchiostro. Consiglio di caraffare assolutamente in caso di apertura precoce, perché è veramente molto inchiodato. Con i minuti, piano piano lascia trapelare la stoffa di cui è fatto: miele amaro di castagno, erbe selvatiche e talco. Bocca raffinata, setosa e levigata. Bella coesione tra frutto nero sferico e grinta tannica sul finale. Al momento la chiusura …

Very smooth (decanted a lot) and drinkable, but not so masculine as expected.

I am shocked by how much I liked this wine (two bottles in two months). First gifted to me by one of Burgundy's top ten winemakers, I hesitated to open it, thinking (naturally) that I would let it age. Why drink an Hermitage at such a young age, unless you wanted to commit a crime, I wondered! The producer insisted that I should open it soon... and I duly followed his instruction. While the colour was the dark purple I …

Full, tight, "heavy" with dark aromas of blackberry, plum, earth and iron minerality. Clearly backward youthfullness. Fullish, tannic, with fresh acidity. Powerful, majestic, and austere. Not come together at all. Fruit in one place, spices in another. To enjoy this wine now give it a 2 hour decant. Otherwise wait 10 years.