La Chapelle verticale (1978-2002)

Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
Tasted Friday, April 29, 2005 by Will with 1,594 views

Introduction

At the occasion of the Welt Wein Festival in Bad Ragaz, a verticale tasting of Hermitage Jaboulet La Chapelle has been organised in the wonderful setting of the Grand Hotel. The tasting consisted of one flight of white wines (Hermitage Chevalier de Sterimberg 2002, 2000, 1989) and 3 flights of reds from youngest to oldest (Hermitage La Chapelle - flight 1: 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 19996, flight 2: 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988 and flight 3: 1985, 1983, 1978). Afterwards a special tasting of the 1961 Hermitage La Chapelle was also taking place but I did not attend. Others may chime in and give their account of the event.

The tasting took place in presence of a representative of the Jaboulet family (Nicolas Jaboulet) who was giving details and explanations about the wines and the vintages. It was very useful, although in the immortal words of Darth Vader, I did not always share his optimistic appraisal of the situation (or in this precise case, vintage).

As a starter, some more information about the Hermitage La Chapelle: produced from a blend of 10 different parcels for a total of around 20 ha of red Hermitage, 100% Syrah. Les Bessards, granitic soil, 4 ha, brings power, structure and rusticity. Le Méal, stones (reflecting the sun, which implies more heat overall and especially during the night when the stones release the heat from the day), brings power and large aromatic palette. Les Greffieux, bottom of the slope, richer soil, brings vivacity/freshness. Harvest and élevage parcel by parcel and then blend at the end. No new oak, only 3-6 years' old casks. Yield about 35 hl/ha in normal years for a total production of roughly 5,000-6,000 cases. The second wine used to be "Le Pied de la Côte" (the bottom of the slope) and is now "La Petite Chapelle".

When asked if something had changed about the winemaking process in recent years (I really don't know what could have prompted such a question ;)), Nicolas Jaboulet explained that it was quite the contrary since the domaine had moved to inox vats in the mid-80s, beginning of the 90s (his explanation of this was quite vague - and I'm a native French speaker...) and they have come back to concrete vats around 5 years ago. I would honestly like to hear more about this...

Flight 1 - Hermitage Chevalier de Sterimberg (white) (3 Notes)

Flight 2 - Hermitage La Chapelle - recent years (5 Notes)

  • 2002 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    The nose is rather focused, classic for this wine all the while still very primary. The palate shows almost no fruit, which is a huge contrast to the nose, with a strong imbalance due to alcohol being too present - this is confirmed by the finish. The wine really feels bare, emaciated, disjointed in the mouth. Although only 1,000 cases were produced (about 20% of the regular production), it still doesn't deliver. It would probably have been better just to forget this vintage.

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  • 2001 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    The nose shows strong, powerful animal notes, with a promise of a very concentrated wine which is unfortunately not confirmed by the mouth. This wine is hard to judge at the moment and I would assume it has started to shut down rather severely. On the palate the fruit has already almost completely disappeared, the wine is clearly backward with a slight alcohol-ish imbalance. To be assessed again in a couple of years.

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  • 2000 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    The wine is clearly shut down, despite the claims of the representative from Jaboulet to the contrary. The nose is rather weird but the palate is more reminiscent of a La Chapelle with a pure, focused expression of the fruit, slightly sweet/jammy but not too much. The finish is not particularly impressive at this stage, although the wine develops quite nicely with time. This is still quite underwhelming for a La Chapelle.

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  • 1999 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    The nose is quite ok and typical but the palate is seriously lacking and the finish so-so. The wine is thin, fleshless, bordering to downright watery. A really poor vintage of this cuvee.

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  • 1996 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    Serious nose, very powerful and incredibly focused/precise with strong aromas of black cherries (griottes). Lots of tannins still with a good showing and breadth in the mouth. This is clearly way over all the other wines in this flight (99-00-01-02), being the first to exhibit a real nose, body and finish. It's still not up to par with the best vintages of this wine, but it's certainly decent.

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Flight 3 - Hermitage La Chapelle - golden years (4 Notes)

  • 1991 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    Still very young and powerful on the nose, the palate is also powerful but also has a lot of elegance and charm. Not peaking yet but getting closer.

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  • 1990 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    I had the impression it was still quite shut down and had not finished this transformation (basically the "shell" is still there). The nose is incredibly powerful and complex, which is confirmed both by the mouth and the finish. However the wine is NOWHERE near ready to drink and it's actually quite hard to enjoy it right now (it had been double-decanted but would certainly benefit from extended aeration). It will be a beauty in 10... 20... 30... years.

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  • 1989 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    This is showing better than the 90 right now because it is simply more ready to drink, although it has a lot of potential and will probably be at its best in a few years. The nose is really superb with some extreme fruit and the mouth and finish are at the same level. Really great to drink right now and showing much better than a bottle I had at the beginning of the year and which was quite hard to approach.

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  • 1988 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    The nose shows some tertiary notes - first wine to do so in the whole line-up! The mouth is really fine and elegant while still being quite concentrated and powerful. Definitely ready to drink and will give good pleasure. Very "gourmand" - not at all the "bruiser" style.

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Flight 4 - Hermitage La Chapelle - the elderly (3 Notes)

  • 1985 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    The nose is just superb, the breadth and depth on the palate incredible. Amazing.

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  • 1983 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    On one hand the wine is really nice, with a fresh, nice nose and mouth, very good and charming, but on the other hand there is some nail polish on the nose, some disturbing aromas on the palate which detracts from the whole experience. Quite nice but seems slightly flawed. Tant pis!

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  • 1978 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    We got to try it 3 times. The first bottle was corked. The second one was good, but still rather disappointing. The wine seemed to be quite old and in an awkward phase, not powerful and vibrant any more, but not yet meditative and thoughtful... Finally Victor came with another, last glass and the wine had developed quite a bit and was very pleasing, but not reaching the heights I had expected.

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Closing

Overall this tasting confirmed the good run for this wine in the 80s, and the rather disappointing production of the recent years. Unfortunately there were not enough wines from the 90s to form a judgement and to try to identify when things started to go wrong. I would have liked to get data points on the 94, 95, 97 or 98 vintages.

It is almost impossible to rank wines that are showing so differently, a few of them being at their peak while others are at least 10 years away from maturity. I rather tried to categorise them:
- ready to drink: 1985, 1988
- upside potential: 1990 (stunning), 1989 (great), 1991 (very good), 1996 (ok)
- reserved judgement: 2001, 1978
- not impressed by: 2002 (crap), 2000, 1999 (poor), 1983 (weird)

Guillaume

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