Community Tasting Note

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Saturday, May 14, 2022 - Part of a horizontal of 1990 red Hermitage. Back in the 80’s and 90’s I was fortunate enough to visit the sacred Chave cellars in Mauves on multiple occasions.. I met Gérard three times and happened to be there when Jean-Louis returned from his educational sojourn at Hartford and UC Davis. After tasting the bottled 1989 Rouge and the constituents of the 1990 Chave Hermitage Rouge, I was hooked on these wines, and subsequently went deep in the 1990 vintage- buying whatever was available. I have been lucky to follow the development of their prodigious 1990 reds, having enjoyed the Rouge 13 times since the early 90’s, and the fabled Cuvée Cathelin 5 times. The Cathelin Ermitage bottling first appeared in 1990 to commemorate a special painting made for the Chaves by a family friend-a local artist Bernard Cathelin. According to JL, the only difference between this and the “Regular” bottling, is that the cepage is almost exclusively from grapes originating in les Bessards vineyards on the hill of Hermitage, with a boatload of granite in the soil. In the decanter the Cathelin is darker than the regular 1990 Rouge, with an explosive nose of bramble berries and truffe noire, as if served in our 1915 woodshed in Sweden with loads of complexity from old wood and leather saddles . Huge palatal presence with sun dried Somerset black cherries and Bündnerfleisch, with a sprinkle of granite and an endless finish feathered with subtle pink peppercorns and cocoa, not unlike a Peacock’s tail that we witness rarely in Burgundy. Mamma mia, red wine does not get better than this! Best now-2060.

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