Hermitage La Maison Bleue

Quail stuffed foie gras, duck breast with cherries, milk-fed lamb en croûte de foin.

Winter is particularly rainy. In January, we notice few touches of frost, good for the vineyard purification. We have a few beautiful days during the spring, the heat and water of the soil are ideal for fast vegetative development. June is warm and rainy. Temperatures exceed 35 degrees celcius in July. The storms in August benefit the vegetation and to a good final ripening.

La Maison Bleue 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.

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.