Hermitage La Chapelle

Tournedos Rossini, Braised veal sweetbread with morels, Roast squab, and cépes.

After autumn which was pretty wet, in particular with more than 30cm of snow in Tain I'Hermitage in December, the winter was cold and dry. Spring was typical in the Northern Rhône Valley area with summer-like temperatures in the months of April and May. The return of the rainfalls come in June to relieve the young vines which had begun to suffer from the drought. Thunderstorms blew in every 15 days from the month of Septemberittle hail at the end of August. The summer began rather cold in July, warmed up in August and then finished hot at the beginning of September. The harvest began under a shining sun and concluded with dryness after a few rainfalls.

La Chapelle is aged in oak in the cellar for 15 to 18 months. Oak barrels are French and are renewed at the level of 20% every year. The final blends are done after the end of the ageing and done through judicious selection from the different terroirs of Hermitage in order to give La Chapelle its own personality of power, ageing potential, and legend.

At perfect maturity, the Syrah grapes are picked by hand and carried in small crates to the winery, the grapes are hand-sorted, destemmed and slightly crushed. The maceration on the skin lasts 3 to 4 weeks with daily pump-overs.

In 1834, when Antoine Jaboulet set up his business in Tain l’Hermitage with the aim of producing great wines, he saw his future profession as cultivating the vineyards and maintaining the quality of the land. It was with this mindset that he quickly acquired his first vineyards on the Hermitage slopes and the Crozes Hermitage plains. In 2006, the Freys (owners of Chateau La Lagune in Bordeaux) took over Paul Jaboulet Aine, where winemaker Caroline now works with her teams in a single-minded quest for perfection; combining cutting-edge winemaking with the scrupulous care given to vines grown in exceptional terroirs. They have since also acquired vineyards in the appellations of Cote Rotie, Condrieu and Crozes Hermitage. All estates are now certified organic and the team broadly follow bio-dynamic principles. Jaboulet’s most celebrated wine is its famed Hermitage La Chapelle, named after the chapel that overlooks this most celebrated of vineyards. Jaboulet have owned the chapel since the end of the First World War – it’s an icon of this part of the Rhone Valley and marks where the best vines are grown.