Domaine Jean-Louis Chave - Hermitage 2022 (Pre-arrival) (1.5L)
Price: $775.00
| Producer | Domaine Jean-Louis Chave |
| Country | France |
| Region | Rhone |
| Subregion | Hermitage |
| Varietal | Rhone Blend |
| Vintage | 2022 |
| Sku | 10809 |
| Size | 1.5L |
Decanter: 98 Points
A tasting of the different lieux-dits showed how the different soil types reacted to the drought. Granite-based parcels (Ermite Les Bessards) suffered blockages in ripening and finished at 13% alcohol; the clay-based terroirs (Le Méal Les Beaumes) didn't stop ripening and finished at 15%. The overall blend will be powerful but fragrant complex and stylistically sits within other recent dry and hot vintages and isn't outside the current norm (it's nothing like the similarly extreme 2003). Picking started at the end of August. (Drink between 2030-2047)
Vinous: 96-98 Points
I tasted various separately vinified lieux-dits that will eventually curate the 2022 L'Hermitage. Both the L'Ermite and Les Bessards the cuvée?s backbone show terrific structure finesse and complexity. I am totally taken by the sheer beauty of the Les Beaumes with its striking inner energy and the mesmerizing floral lift of the Péléat. Cropped at an overall 30 hL/ha the ripeness of the vintage is skillfully balanced by lifting freshness throughout all components. I can?t wait to taste the final result. - By Nicolas Greinacher on October 2023 Jean-Louis Chave smiled when I asked him about his latest destemming practices. ?That's the number one question these days. In the past I was always asked about new oak proportions. Both aspects are very interesting though because new oak as well as destemming has a direct impact on wine style. For my Saint-Joseph I usually keep a small proportion of stems. What?s interesting is that whenever I use whole clusters in fermentation the grapes are grown on very granitic soils. As soon as there's a bit of clay in the soil I destem. In Hermitage it's more complicated because historically winemakers generally destemmed all their grapes. These days I usually add some whole clusters from the Les Béssards lieu-dit because these soils are very granitic. In my opinion stems introduce a bit of rusticity to Syrah and a hint of tannin astringency. But at the same time I feel that stems positively contribute to a wine?s freshness. As temperatures rise ? especially in the Rhône Valley ? winemakers need to find methods to preserve freshness and keeping some stems can help with that. It's complicated though because even though stems provide aromatic freshness it deacidifies the wines. Historically speaking there have been great wines with whole cluster fermentation and great wines that used fully destemmed fruit. Take Henri Jayer from Burgundy for example; he absolutely hated stems.? In 2021 Chave fully destemmed nearly all his grapes because the stems weren?t fully ripe. It was a rather complicated vintage because although there was ripeness dilution was also present. Chave continued ?Add rainwater to ripeness. Not last-minute rain not rain just before harvest but regular rain from the beginning of the growing season. Two thousand twenty-one is interesting because without the dilution we might have achieved 15% natural alcohol. If you think about it smaller vintages of the past couldn?t achieve such ripeness. In 2021 we went much further in ripeness but there was some dilution. I never saw this before because there are rainy vintages like 2002 2008 or 2014 where the grapes struggled to ripen; 2021 is a vintage where the grapes ripened but with water. And fortunately the heavy rainfalls during the winter of 2021/2022 helped prepare the soils for the hot and dry 2022 vintage.? Taking a closer look at what?s in the glass Chave?s wines continue to shine with class clarity and refinement. Interestingly the quality difference between 2021 and 2022 is almost nonexistent for the white Hermitages as opposed to the reds. In the latter case 2022 has a clear edge over 2021. The whites may end up achieving the same quality although they are different in style. Both the Saint-Joseph as well as the Saint-Joseph Clos Florentin are shaping up nicely in 2022. In 2022 the vines generally accumulated less sugar in their berries compared to other warm and sunny vintages (like 2018 or 2019) and it was harder for sugar levels and phenolic ripeness to converge. To conclude this visit Chave pulled the cork of a refined 2001 Hermitage currently sitting in an excellent drinking spot.
Jeb Dunnuck: 95-97+ Points
The 2022 Hermitage will be a beauty but it has the focused firmer straight style of the vintage. As usual I was able to taste through all of the lieux-dits: Péleat Les Beaumes L'Ermite Le Méal and Les Bessards all being mid- to upper-90s ratings the standouts being L?Ermite and Bessards with the Méal possessing a more focused tannic style than normal. All of the barrels I was able to taste had remarkable purity beautiful overall balance and classic Hermitage class with an incredible sense of minerality. This is a great wine but it's going to take a decade of bottle age. The firmer structure and incredible minerality actually remind me of the 1998 although I think there's a touch more sun-kissed fruit here. This iconic estate continues to hold the line on what constitutes a truly great Hermitage both red and white and there are few vinous treats better than a tasting with Jean-Louis Chave in his cellar in Mauve. Looking at the wines reviewed here the 2022s were tasted from barrel and this is a ripe sunny yet also tannic vintage that?s going to benefit from its élevage as well as require bottle age. They remind me slightly of Chave?s 1998 although as I say in the review I think there?s a touch more sun-kissed fruit in the 2022s. The 2021s are beautiful elegant seamless wines and you?ll be hard pressed to do better in the vintage. These aren?t massive wines but they have pretty complex and classic profiles that will drink well with just a few years of bottle age. On another level the 2020s are powerful massive wines that remind me slightly of the 2010s (or is it 2009s?). They have tons of baby fat and are already fun to taste but these are built for the long haul.
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