Wines may age, but Hermitage never gets old

In a perpetual tie with Cote-Rotie as my all-time favorite red wine, the notion of getting something made by Jean Louis Chave from prestige climats within Hermitage for less than $100 almost feels like stealing. Nearly synonymous with Hermitage, the Chave family has been making wine here since the 1400’s and have basically perfected the tremendously complicated blending of different barrels from different plots to create the ultimate expression of Northern Rhone syrah.

One of the reasons it takes a long time to really figure out the blending is because the hill of Hermitage actually has a fault line running through it which is visible in the second photo, with one side being formed by the Massif Centrale, and the other being formed by the Alps. These geologically distinct sites create wines with quite different flavor profiles, and it’s by utilizing these different voices that winemakers create the size and tone of the choir.

The Domaine wines from Chave have always been sought-after and expensive, so the JL Chave Selections label, made from vineyards leased and farmed by Chave, allows for a taste of what you can get from the Domaine bottlings without it costing as much as a car or even house payment.

2020 J. L. Chave Selections Hermitage “Farconnet”, Northern Rhone, France– This bottle really is incredible. The nose starts with these tremendous and dominating notes of plum, fresh blackberries, black raspberry skin, and smoke, with a truly beautiful note of beef stew with root vegetables like carrots and potatoes as well as mushrooms. The next time you put your nose in the glass, it’s joined by a dried beef note almost like “silver dollar” beef jerky, and an earthiness like wet rocks with a white pepper note that feels like it stings if you smell tthe wine too quickly.

On the palate, you get a really intense acidity along with bright notes of fresh plum, plum skins, pomegranate, and blackberry which feel like they’re being delivered on a thin oak tray. After that you get hit simultaneously with the most beautiful braised beef, that beef stew, an almost scotch-like smoke, and a granite rock you just dug out of the ground. Beautiful, lasting finish which gives you a tremendous amount of time to write notes.

Once the wine had opened up, the plum had begun to transform into the purple (plum) lifesavers, which made me realize I never once noticed or looked at the ABV, only to be startled it was 15%.

This really is, and always has been, a phenomenal value, but this 2020 will go down as one of my all-time favorites.