2020 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Maison Bleue

Community Tasting Notes (8) Avg Score: 91.1 points

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  3/1/2024 - MJP Hou TX Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Opened and consumed over two days.
  
  2020 offers some density and weight I haven't found in recent vintages. A bit tannic at the start so a good decant is recommended if opening now. Dark fruits, bitter chocolate espresso and some olives come to mind. Savory.
  
  92+

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  9/20/2023 - chatters wrote:

  2020 Rhone's (Bottega Coco): Ripe blackberry, smells quite dense, touch of smoked bacon, meaty underpin, polished oak is well integrate but present and offers a little caramel and vanilla. Big, bold, ripe and concentrated on the palate, savoury blackberry, tight woody chewy grippy tannins, Quite a brooding and powerful profile. Woof.

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  7/10/2023 - Clifford1 Likes this wine: 93 Points

  A beautifuly structured Hermitage. Likely will improve from some years of bottle age. A little tight but opened up nicely in the glass.

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  5/19/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 92 Points

  The unexpected sight of this wine at a local bottle shop, generally more committed to feeding slop to the demimonde than to gentilhomme like me caused me to suffer from a pre-emptive stiffy of terrifying proportions. Like a character from Jethro Tull's 'Locomotive Breath' I snuck up to the counter, as though gripping some terrible porn and paid my money. Surely the notes were greasy and smelly and caked with some crusty substance. Shuffling outside and then home, out came the cork. This note is made about 4 hours after opening, no decanting.
  
  I am something of a fan of this wine. It generally gives the character of Hermitage, but it is prepared to surrender its virtue younger than the Jabbers La Chappelle. There are often enticing blue fruit characters as well as the more typical dark plum, charcuterie, black pepper, beef fart and blackberry. So it is with this vintage.
  
  As with many, if not most, wines of the 2020 vintage in the Northern Rhone slammer, this offers contrast to the 2019 vintage. 2019 was about power (and we crave it), where 2020 is a vintage that offers more delicacy and subtlety. Both feature wonderfully ripe tannins and plush fruit.
  
  I find this wine to be eminently enjoyable right now. Doubtless it will cellar, but will it get better for that? My own view is that whilst I enjoy aged wine for its own sake to a degree, I cellar wine for a purpose and the main purpose is to tame tannins and achieve balance. Aged characters are the bonus. There is nothing wrong with the other view - that aged character is the primary goal. If you belong to the latter school of thought then cellar away, but if you follow the same star as I, then this is the wine to guzzle with abandon whilst one waits for the sterner stuff of La Chappelle to come around.
  
  I do think there is a small question about the way this wine seems to fall away a little on the finish and that slight sense of 'hollowness' is also present on the fore-palate. At this price point, is that acceptable?
  
  In Oz this wine is rather costly and for this vintage there might be a question about QPR. However, I think there is a good argument that nothing with this wine's flavour profile and structure in combination is made in Oz and you might have to scratch about to find its like from those damned Frenchies. You will find plenty of Shiraz/Syrah that offers more length, intensity, flavour, or even complexity of architecture, but it won't be like this wine. It is a complicated situation.
  
  Ultimately, I see this as delicious but not compelling. You might see it differently.

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  5/8/2023 - UFGators Likes this wine: 92 Points

  A 92 for now but 92-95 potential. This is super young and tightly coiled now. Much better on day two. Super tannic but great notes of blackberry, smoke and game. Give it 2-3 years before trying again.

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