Sunday, May 27, 2007

Northern Rhône – Part Three

If I have to name ten of the most memorable wines I had in my life. Jaboulet's Hermitage La Chapelle 1961 is definitely one of them. This wine has evolved very slowly and one could easily mistake it for a ten-year old claret. One interesting aspect for Hermitage, as they aged, they shed away their early sturdy personality, turning into more delicate, ethereal that has much in common with a well cellaring top Bordeaux. The greatest wine connoisseur of all time, Thomas Jefferson once describe Hermtage as, "wine of full body, dark purple hue, with exclusive perfume that's compared to that of raspberry". In the early nineteenth century, Hermitage was in fact among the most expensive red wine of France, with price fetching higher than those of Lafite-Rothschild and Haut-Brion.

Jancis Robinson once called Hermitage, the cradle of syrah. Indeed, syrah is the sole contributor for Hermitage, where vineyards lie within the Tain L'Hermitage, across the river Tournon sur Rhône, seperated by the brides of Pont M. Séguin and Pont G. Toursier, overlooking the opposite side of St.-Joseph. Hermitage hills, where the southerly exposition vineyards begin, has a historic track record of some 500 B.C. where Greeks were believed to be the first to bring vines to Hermitage. The famous stone chapel that is owned by Paul Jaboulet Aîné was said to be built by Gaspard de Stérimberg (Jaboulet named their white Hermitage after himself - Chevalier de Stérimberg), a crusader in the thirteenth century. Despite legends have several explanation on how the name Hermitage is derived? However, the local believed, a hermit (french for ermite), which refered to Stérimberg that sought refuge on Hermitage hills and lived in self-imposed solitude was the answer to the myth. Michel Chapoutier has approved this theory and named his finest luxury cuvées Ermitage, l'Ermite.

Hermitage hills consist of 132 hectares (326 acres) of vines in a south facing bank of granite. The southern exposition combines heat-retaining granite soil that helps promote the ripening of grape. Like many of the northern Rhône vineyards. The finest of all lies on the steeper, most significant gradient terraced vineyard, where lieux-dits of Les Bessards is found. The sandy gravel over granite soil of Les Bessards produced some of the most intense, powerful wine of Hermitage. Both Chapoutier (Le Pavillon) and Chave's Hermitage sourced their fruits here. Le Méal, which is made known by Chapoutier, where he made a 100% Syrah red Hermitage and his Marsanne, cuvée de L'Orée, also the key component that contributes the great Jaboulet's La Chapelle. Wine here tend to be more fragrant, fruity and supple, which largely credit to it's limestone, large rocks soils. L'Hermite, with vineyard located at the highest elevation is virtually owned exclusively by Gérard Chave. The unique iron-rich soil produced the richest and most concentrated wine of the area. However, Chave retain a sense of elgance and finesse in his Hermitage. Since 1996, Chapoutier also produced his single-vineyard Hermitage, cuvée l'Hermite here. The clay predominate Les Diognières and Les Greffieux are also worth noticing. Guigal made his red Hermitage out from Les Diognières, while Marc Sorrel blend some of Les Greffieux to his famous Le Gréal.

Gérard Chave, in his 70s, is today assisted by his equally talented son, Jean-Louis. In the mind of Chave, new oak barrel not only changed the character of the wine, but disguised its identity of his Hermitage. His winemaking approach is very traditional. For his white Hermitage, which was a blend of 85% Marsanne and 15% Roussanne is vinified only with indigenous yeast. Fermentation is slow and long, and in some vintage, it can take up to a yeast to complete the fermentation. Chave is not a believer of bâtonnage, which he claimed that, lees stirring only further oxidises his wine but does not improve the texture. Chave red Hermitage is a result of blending of several lieux-dits parcels. Each parcel is treated and vinified seperately. After 14-18 months of aging in old wooden foudres. He then decided which goes into the final blend. Chave owned some of the oldest most precious vineyard in Hermitage hills. His 5-acre parcel of Les Bessards is already 90-year-old along with his 60-year-old Le Méal. Chave Hermitage is consistently rated among the greatest wine of the appellation. In the recent interview, Jean-Louis Chave sum up how one could expect from his Hermitage. "Hermitage is not necessary a big wine. What is more important is that the fruit is ripe and the elements are in balance. We're looking for finesse rather than power".
Paul Jaboulet Aîné, the late Gérard Jaboulot, whom I have the privilege to make acquaintance with was in fact, the best ambassador for Rhône Valley. Interestingly, my very first bottle of Rhône Valley wine came from this historical family, which was founded in the 19th century. Today, the firm has no longer in the hand of Jaboulot but rather been acquired by Frey family of Château La Lagune. Jaboulet's La Chapelle is fruit sourced from Le Méal and Les Bessards, with an average vine age of 50 year-old. 100% destemmed with a long maceration of 21 days, and up to 30-38 days in great years. After fermentation, the wine is aged in burgundy, François Frères barrels (but rarely new) for 12-14 months. Anyone who has the privilege to taste his 1961, 1978 & 1990 will be in no doubt about their high quality in this film. In fact, during my previous 1961 tasting. La Chapelle's 61 was among the crowd favorite.

Michel Chapoutier reminded me a lot like Marcel Guigal. Both are considered the modernist in the region; both utilizing more new wood aging than their neighbors; Both are strong believers of single-vineyard bottling. However, Chapoutier with his biodynamic farming approach, making him constantly in the lamplight as one of the most controversial wine figure in Rhône Valley. However, no one should be doubtful about his effort on revamping the quality of his family film and his burgundian-like approached (open-top fermenter, indigenous yeast, 100% destemmed, aging in small troncais barrel, vinify parcel-by-parcel) has increasingly place him among the very best maker of Rhône Valley by such influential critics like Parker, Tanzer and Wine Spectator.

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