Six days at Domaine Jean-Louis Chave.
Jean-Louis Chave does not give tours. He does not have a tasting room. If you want to taste his wine, you sit at the table in his house in Mauves and he pours from bottles that have been open since lunch. The visit lasts as long as it lasts.
I arrived on a Monday and left on a Saturday. On three of those days, I tasted. On two of them, I walked the vineyards. On one of them, Jean-Louis drove me to a parcel above Tournon that he is considering buying and asked my opinion, which is a form of politeness that means he has already decided.
Bessards
The Bessards parcel is the heart of Hermitage rouge. It sits on pure granite, south-facing, at 280 meters. The vines are forty to sixty years old. The wine from Bessards is the backbone of the Hermitage blend, the structural core around which everything else is arranged.
I tasted the 2023 Bessards from barrel. It is dense, mineral, and precise. Jean-Louis says it will need fifteen years. I believe him.
The foudre programme
Chave has been gradually replacing his smaller barrels with large foudres over the past decade. The current cellar holds twelve foudres of 20 to 40 hectoliters each, made from Allier oak by Stockinger. The wines spend 18 to 24 months in foudre before blending.
The effect is subtle but real. The wines have more air, more space. The tannins are softer without being less structured. The 2021 Hermitage blanc, aged entirely in foudre, is the most compelling white Hermitage I have tasted from this domaine.
The rosé that nearly was
On the last day, Jean-Louis mentioned that he had made a trial lot of Saint-Joseph rosé from Syrah. He poured it. It was excellent: pale copper, dry, saline, with the granite minerality of the appellation. He said he would probably not release it because it would confuse people.
I told him it would sell out in a week. He shrugged.
The 2023 Hermitage will arrive in Florida in spring 2026. Allocation is by buying record. Write to me if you want to be considered.