Double decanted for 4 hours prior to serving. fair bit of sediment to get rid off. It was totally in the zone after that time with lovely acidity but also enough sweetness to make it a rather mellow drink without a hard edge and plenty of character olive tapenade and beef blood. No bret here a really succulent pure bottle that felt on a gentle decline but certainly still in the late prime time drinking window. Probably a vintage to be opening up now and over the next 10 years based on this bottle.
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Heater week; 3/8/2024-3/17/2024 (Chicago, IL): Initially somewhat stern and unyielding, high acid and structure, and not very expressive. Far better a few hours in, with more elegance and the expected rusticity for Chave of that era. Very red-fruited.
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Rhône or Nôwhere 2.0 (Malcolm, NE): The 1988 Chave Hermitage Rouge came out guns blazing and super primal with mushrooms, organic earth, rotundone, loads of coffee, and even some spinach accompanying the dried fruit set. Complex doesn’t even begin to describe and it seemed as if it was just getting started. A classic pairing with grilled lamb and Moroccan spices. Drink now through 2040. Merci Matt!
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Gereiftes Rubin, deutliche Alterstöne. Die Nase ist weit entwickelt, die Todessüsse dringt durch, Tabak, Leder, etwas Maggikraut, durchaus komplex, jedoch sehr reif. Im Gaumen straff, mittlerer Körper, wenig Frucht, die Tannine sind abgeschmolzen, das Säuregerüst stützt. Angenehm langer Abgang,
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Smoke, charcoal, crushed stones, dried flowers, cherries, and plums create the core of this wine. The palate is long, fresh, clean, and loaded with mineral-laden red fruits, green olives, and peppery spice. Drink from 2023-2035.
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Northern Rhone-a-thon: This pours medium garnet with a faint touch of green at the rim. The nose is absolutely stunning, soaring with white pepper, leather, tobacco, gamey lamb meat, wet hay, dark cherry, furniture, a touch of pickle, dried black currant, and dried blueberry. The palate is lovely, textured and silky with medium minus velvety tannin and medium acid. The finish is long and complex replaying much of the nose. All in all this was one of the surprises of the evening for me. Quite surprised I preferred this to the 89, at least today. I could see some feeling that the brett is above their tolerance level, but nobody at this table was complaining, and it's easily within acceptable limits for me. Just sensational stuff in my view. I think I liked this a tad more than most at the table.
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Dinner with the wine group (Zazie's, San Francisco): Light ruby; incredible intensity aromatics, mature aromatics, earthy, dust, incredibly complex, a bit of soy, still seems like it has some fruit; palate is medium bodied, vibrant medium-plus acidity, low-medium alcohol; finish is medium length. Exceptionally well balanced, incredible aromatics, not super-long on the finish but I don’t really care when I’m drinking it… 94-95
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Sunday Lunch with Raveneau Chablis and Chave Hermitage (Piccino Restaurant, San Francisco): Light ruby, watery rim. Fragrant herbs and light fruit. Light weight. Supple entry with faded red fruit and orange rind. Then it turns more peppery and ends with soil and little remaining tannin. As was another bottle last year, subtle, lovely, complex, and emblematic of the Chave style. Not a "wow" wine and probably never at the qualitative level of either the 2010 or 2005 which preceded it, this is more old style and was deeply satisfying. A great way to end the skein of Chave vintages we were fortunate enough to taste today.
Chave: "In the name of science" (Chicago, IL): ...but I just don't think that this bottle showed too well either. It seemed a little volatile and I kept getting periodic whiffs of something that seemed too close to TCA for comfort. Then again, I'm probably overly sensitive to it. This was a thinning wine; tart red fruits and just weak and emaciated on the palate. Angular acidity and tannins both. I've certainly had better bottles of this before and can only chalk this up to bottle variation.
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After cleaning the top of cork, was able to gently remove in one piece. Left the bottle open for an hour. A very nice older wine, in a very nice place, for its age. No fading, but a fair amount of sediment. Went lovely with braised rabbit. Bought this in a little wine shop in Tain la Hermitage, for about $20! The owner was using the old roll over tissue and carbon paper credit card ‘reader’. Nice memory.
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A bit of funk at first, but cleaned up nicely with a bit of air. Elegant and pretty with lots of nice red fruit, a probably not a perfect bottle... I've been told there's a lot of bottle variation with older Chave, and this is probably a good but not great bottle of 88.
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Aromatically complex with layers of sweet, elegant, earthy, red fruits, there is a gorgeous refined quality here, with ample depth of flavor, energy length and complexity today making this a top vintage for Chave. Plus, it is drinking in the sweet spot. Mature Chave has become tremendously expensive over the past few years, while still quite pricey, when compared to the 89 & 90, this is a well-priced vintage for Chave.
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Chave Hermitage Dinner (Greenwood - Highwood IL): Single blind in 82/88/89 flight. Opened several hours in advance, double decanted. Big, bold and powerful black fruit, even without any sense of ripeness. Meaty and spicy, with everything in perfect proportion. From the same case as another bottle tasted earlier this year, but tonight's bottles was double decanted in advance (vs popped-and-poured) and the wine showed substantially better tonight.
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Stunning big dark brooding quality to this wine. Large scale black fruits with nice richness and great spice. Toasted and toasted with good power, spice and length.
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90 min decant. Olive, velvety. less monolithic than other Chaves i've drunk, one of my favorite Chave's. would have guessed blind cote rotie. Some more barnyard qualities. Later part of drinking window.
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From magnum but there was some seepage and this wasn't quite as youthful and pristine as I was hoping it would be. Solid and enjoyable but there are better bottles of this.
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Summer Dinner (Los Gatos, California): After having the 1998 last night, we had the good fortune of a friend opening this tonight. Light garnet. Stemmy, fennel, French Syrah nose with a touch of woodsmoke. Lean, dry, high acid. Discrete, mineral, and classic. There is a remaining core of red fruit buried deeply beneath the structure, but it doesn’t last long once the bottle gets sime air. Wonderful but much more old school and less silky and supple than the ‘98.
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Interesting nose of forest floors, red fruit, cherries, and some brett. Nice acidity on the palate with savory notes, more red berries, and some funk/brett. Good finish. This was a tiny bit rustic, I was expecting a more elegant and refined wine. It's very interesting and complex nonetheless.
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Dégustation Open Dreamer Style chez Simon B: Belle surprise je m'attendais à un vin fatigué mais il a maintenu son niveau longtemps dans mon verre. Bouquet complexe et tertaire de notes fumées, de viandes séchées, olives noires et j'en passe. La bouche est tendre et soyeuse. Très belle bouteille considérant qu'elle venait de chez Champlain C.
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Beautiful in its own right though a bit overshadowed by the ‘85. Also complex with lots of tertiary meat and olive notes. Lithe and graceful on the palate.
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Wow...this is in an fantastic place. Dried flowers, sweet herbs, cassis, fresh sage, black olive, sweet cherry, plum and smoked meat. This is a delicate, mesmorizing masterpiece! So pure...so layered....so long.
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(CDV) Petite austérité à l'ouverture, d'abord un peu animal, un peu dur en bouche. Un millésime parait-il austère pendant longtemps. Puis le nez s'est ouvert, profond, épicé, boisé (bois précieux), cuiré, petis fruits rouges à l'alcool. La bouche a suivi, partant d'une structure d'abord dure, "sèche" voir asséchante; il a ainsi évolué et tout s'est estompé en mangeant (carré de porc juste cuit et son jus corsé). Comme il ne fait pas son age, il a encore qq belles années devant lui le bougre!
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On a visit to Tain la Hermitage, a small wine shop in downtown, Chave Hermitage at $20 a bottle. Ran the Amex card under the press and tissue machine, remember those? Wonderful old wine, Frank Sinatra, pure and sweet. Just lovely memories.
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This bottle showed signs of old seepage. The cork was loose and snapped into dust. The remainder of the cork was soaked and difficult to remove. So, I found myself filtering the wine through a paper towel, which removed a good deal of sediment, which deeply affected the flavor.
Initially very truffley and some blackberry perhaps a floral note. The acidity, at first was pleasant. But it broke down quickly and became too vinegary.
I reserved a bit in the bottle, unfiltered. The fruit was incredibly intact and tannins were lively. Never again will I filter with cloth.
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Herbs, iron, red fruit, decay and dried flowers. The palate gained weight and depth with air with ethereal sweet red fruit. Might not be as wow as 89 and 90, but it was not too far off from them.
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Very solid bottle of 88 just a little lost in a great line of up Chave wines. More resolved and elegant than the 90 in the next glass. The was prettier and more delicate. Very enjoyable.
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A Whole Lotta Chave Hermitage (Single Blind) (Chez Kailin): 83/88/89/90/Ringer Flight. Attractive, mature nose if a bit modest particularly next to the 89 and 90. Aromas of mature black fruit, funk, tar and some toasted spice/herb. Moderately concentrated and still fresh. Meaty black fruit with ethereal spice. Very good though this clearly suffered from the relative comparison with the other worldly 89 and 90 in the flight. My #3, Group #3.
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This vintage has always been my favorite of the 1988-89-90-91 quartet (including the Cathelins in 1990 and 1991). It's been my experience than the Chave Hermitages (at least those Gérard made) go through an extra blossoming at 25-30 years of age, and that is the case with this one. Smoky Chave perfume followed by intense, precise, pure plum fruit in a medium-full body with great penetration and a fair amount of power. This wine can age well for decades more. Cellared since original release, this is the Kermit Lynch import.
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Smoke, coffee bean on the nose - but to taste it’s the impeccable balance that strikes me between the sauvage character of Hermitage and the elegance of Chave.
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From magnum. Light bret initially turned into heavy bret. Some metallic notes. Typical and good, if a little rustic, for the first 15 minutes, but then became quite feral. 90-
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Chave and cassoulet: Brilliant wine. My favorite of the 85-88-89 flight, and one of my favorites of the night. There's more intensity and power to the fruit here than in the '85, and while it's also showing lots of cured meat and smoky flavours, the flavours are a bit cleaner than the '85 - more polished and less sauvage, with the red fruit coming through very clearly beneath. There's still a touch of fine grained tannin lingering on the back, though I get the impression this is on the back end of a plateau, or just starting on the downslope.
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The King in the North! (Chicago, IL): I think at the end of the day, I liked this more than others at the table. The nose was initially quite unyielding, showing quite closed, but swirling it brings out more of the red fruit, some herbal elements, and a splotch of blood. In fact, the nose seems to get more and more intense with air. The palate is definitely on the lighter side, with the red fruit at the forefront. There's a delicacy here that I love, but right behind it is this massive acid-driven structure that is quite imposing.
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Purchased at a Kings Market in northern NJ for $39.99. Those were the days........
Very vibrant, preserved by good fruit and good acidity. Smoke, bacon, cocoa powder, stewed red fruits. I said raspberries but my dining companion said sour cherries. No fade even 90 minutes after opening. The hallmark for me was the acidity. The fat in the braised beef with winter vegetables could not overwhelm the cut of this wine. I see no reason to hold this any further. It had all the features of a mature wine that one could ask.
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Potent and poignant noise of hung game and bramble. Beautiful and precise red cherry fruit balanced by a nice vein of acidity that carries the persistent finish. Some older northern Rhônes seem to be almost totally savory and starved for fruit but everything is in balance here.
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My last bottle. Cassoulet dinner with 89 & 98 vintages. More maturity than the last time I drank this several years ago but not at all faded. Nice to have with the other two vintages. Just terrific!
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Jean Louis Chave Hermitage Tasting (Wine Watch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida): From a magnum, which perhaps added to its excellent showing. Very dark color. A much earthier nose, with more sweet barnyard seasoning. Dark fruits, leather, black pepper, anise, and violets on the nose. Seriously dense, rich, and layered on the palate. Never tired throughout the evening. A long, lingering finish with medium-plus acidity. Not the tannic spine of the 1990, but still well structured. For me, this was essentially equal to the 1971 (for its mature charm) and the 1990 (for its concentration and overall potential). Impossible for me to really pick a WOTN on this evening.
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Flawed. Had a pronounced, odd, sharp pine resin or juniper flavor. May not have been stored properly. Sadly it had turned into something other than wine, let alone wine from a storied Hermitage producer.
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Corked. Initial pour (cellar temp) I was pretty sure there was TCA but the palate had so much potential, I could taste the underlying greatness just somewhat muffled. As the wine warmed it was overwhelmed by tca and became undrinkable. Such a sad bottle to lose to tca
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In a tasting with Verset and Gentaz which is not fair. This has a good amount of red cherry and spice. Classic Chave perfume and spice. Compared to the Verset and Gentaz this lacked the same depth but was still very good. Plenty of time left here. On its own would probably rate higher.
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Unicorn Rhones (aka a taste-off btwn Verset and Gentaz with a few bonuses) (Momofuku Ko): Really interesting to try the Chave next to the Verset and the Gentaz. It was interesting because there was an opinion at the table that this might just have been a bad bottle of Chave - at the very least it didn't seem in quite the same ballpark as the other two. That's possibly true. As someone who thinks Chave is good but not great wine though (and therefore not really worth the price tag) I wasn't all that surprised that it didn't quite hit the same level. This was much fruitier than most Chaves I've had. Mostly dominated by a red currant. Some spice and some animal, but those pieces take a background role. Compared to the other two wines, it feels a bit less interesting or with that je ne sais quoi if that makes any sense. But on its own I think it would be quite enjoyable. Interesting to have the comparison. Wonder how it would have gone with a LaLa.
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Sour cherries. Some coffee, some —- no notes. There was some white pepper, yeah. Was in the mood for berries.
Added a bit of honey.
—A bit better, but the sourness suggested to my nostrils a 3 hour stint in the back of a locked Volvo Wagon, a 1977 diesel, green in the summer, in northern Michigan—
Super Rhône tasting (Wine Watch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida): This was the consensus wine of the night, though this was partially because this wine was at its peak while the knockout wines from 2003 were young and far from maturity. The nose just never quit, with red fruits, cigar box, espresso, truffle, smoke, and lots of pepper. There was so much depth to the nose. And the palate was just as strong. Full-bodied with impressive density and concentration. It was hard to find a flaw here, and it was a wine that was difficult to forget, with its resonating finish. Superb, but still a notch below the 1989 and other-worldly 1990.
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corkage at pasquale jones. took a while to come around, and I wouldn't be shy about giving this some air if opening a bottle. was a bit roasted and plummy. over time that faded a bit and the wine developed length and vibrancy on the palate. a thoroughly enjoyable, if not transcendent, bottle of win.
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Initially eclipsed by the 1990, but with time this came on and assumed its place as the superior wine with body, elegance, and smoky animal fruits. Cellared since original release. Kermit Lynch Import.
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Manresa (Los Gatos, Ca.): What a treat! Perfectly stored bottle...silky and pure dark berry fruits, cherry skin freshness, seamless, haunting aromas of dried flowers, tilled herb garden, cigar wrapper, sous bois...deep and engaging wine.
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Decanted 80 minutes. Garnet red, with much less bricking than one might expect. Nose of leather, cured meat, forest floor and dried flowers. Sweet cherry and juicy (not jammy!) blackberry on the palate. Medium acidity, medium+ body. Tannins are oh-so-smooth and the finish is long and full of minerality with just a hint of pepper. Wish I had a case of this but alas, it was my only bottle.
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Attractive soft spice nose with dark red fruit. But the palate on this bottle was not pristine, with the backpalate and finish fading in both intensity and focus
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Double decanted 2-3 hours before drinking. This showed very well, with a cooler / austere profile of raspberry, redcurrant and slightly deeper-pitched fruit, smarter leather, and hints of meatiness and soil evolution. Most people's preference in the 88-89-91 flight ****1/2+
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Rhone Dinner @The Shish Kebab House (West Hartford, CT): Such a lovely, delicate, well-aged Hermitage. Evolved, with dried fruit, leather, spice and smoke. This kept changing and gaining in complexity as it sat in the glass. A subtle wine that demands your attention.
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A bottle with less to say than others, and what it did have to say was not particularly articulate. That being said, the Chave style from a vintage such as this, and with some age, doesn't require translation to enjoy. 92+
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Holiday dinner organized by Ken Brown with many great wines! (Ripple Restaurant in Washington D.C.): What clean precision and focus! Some used "wild" descriptions but I just found this gorgeously linear and long on the palate. Sure, also intense and dense - as a Syrah based northern Rhone should be, especially from a producer with such a great reputation. Let's cut to the chase: while my glass of 1990 was still existing, I finished off the 1988.
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15 vintages of Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage, Rouge and Blanc (E&R Wine Shop, Portland OR): And who'd have thunk it... the '88 steals the show for the reds tonight! This was beautifully expressive, showing sweet soil with just the slightest bit of VA, but in a lovely way. Rich and puckering. The palate is lovely on entry, with a really nice, pure, confidently mature fruit flavors ready for you. Elegant and integrated with pleasing intensity and perfect balance throughout. Sweet soil shows up on the finish, which still has plenty of acid to pucker your mouth. Beautiful with lots of elegance. This is a perfectly integrated, pretty and expressive wine at present.
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A treat indeed. Splash decanted, the wine was perched between, rustic charm and refinement. Sweet, red fruits, iron, earth and stone notes were all over the place. Not as concentrated or lush as the top years, but quite complex, charming and fully mature.
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Elegant dark fruit and spice notes on the nose, complex and evolving over the course of two hours. Strong front palate but in general the palate did not live up to the nose on this occasion. I found this bottle lacking some of the darker smoke, fruit and earth notes on the finish, that I typically enjoy with this wine. 93-94
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Similar notes to a year ago. Gorgeous. This is just a beautiful wine in a perfect spot of maturity. Amazing aromatics, intensity without weight and fully resolved, silky structure. 80s Chave are just in a great place right now generally speaking. Love this wine.
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Le fuck you Isis Lunch (La Tour D'Argent, Paris): No decanting and could have used. Bit as it had a lot of fine sediment. The colour is not of a 27 yr old wine. Very much the same for the fruit in the magnificent wine ,vibrant, rich , alive and with a nice liquorice notes. Similarly on the palate, the tannin is silky yet very much firm and was a masterclass of purity and elegance.weeould dare say this is ontheyoungside. 97-98
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Consumed out of magnum. Limited notes but from what I can remember this exhibited robust barnyard, funk and earthy aromas with an equally earthy and dry palate. Very nice tough berry and herbal quality. The true essence of hermitage.
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tried a second bottle and much to my amazement it was far superior to the previous bottle. the wine definitely needs some air prior to drinking and while the cork showed some signs of leakage the wine was fine. I do not think this wine has that much longer life left in it
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Both tonight's Hermitages were disappointing but this one particularly so being well over the hill. There was a fully stained cork and a little ullage (lower neck) but I have had excellent wines from worse bottles in these respects. Colour distinctly tawny at the rim. Nose definitely porty with a cabbage tinge. The palate was better with full/medium body, plenty of rich fruit, lively varnish tinged acidity and minerals and fine length and structure but it was somewhat disjointed and there was a hint of rottenness but not enough to prevent drinkability. Very frustrating because there were glimpses of what greatness might have been there 5 years ago.
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Dinner at Brasa, Raleigh, NC. I'm very fortunate to have a wife with great taste and knowledge of wine. Going to a Brazilian steakhouse we knew the meal would be mostly red meat. Having a primarily white cellar this some times causes a lot of extra thought on what to open. Dena says either Chave or Bonneau when I ask her. I know we're guaranteed a winner and after some discussion we decide on the '88 Chave. Terrific fill level and the cork comes out looking closer to a 2 year old bottle than a 27 year old bottle ( I know it's legit as it's from a 6 pack I bought over a decade ago before prices soared on Chave and fakes became a concern). Beautiful ruby with virtually no bricking. Loaded with cherries, raspberries, minerality and smoke - classic Chave. Tasting on the young side but the tannins have almost all melted away just leaving deep and concentrated fruit. Long fruity finish. A really great bottle. I had to laugh as our waiter was in training and had an " experienced" waiter with him. You could tell that the so called experienced waiter knew nothing about wine, which is fine, but tried to come off as an expert when opening the bottle while at the same time seeming to have an attitude that people bringing their own wine were just being cheap not trying to have a great aged bottle. He was quickly shown up by the waiter in training who spent some time in the wine business and said "the '88 should be great right now. I'd highly recommend the house special picanya". A great bottle. Well stored bottles should keep drinking well for at least a decade. 50+14+15+9.5+9.5=98
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What Kevin said. This is the single best Chave I've ever had. Profound! Only a great Burg or Nebbi could surpass this. This even managed to ...easily... push my '07 Allemande out of contention for WOTN.
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Northern Rhones (Strip Club Meat and Fish, St. Paul, MN): Dark red color with a clear 2mm margin. PNP, drank 1 glass over an hour plus. This was flat out ridiculously good. I have to echo bill00's comments. Wow, killer nose and palate, very complex and beautifully integrated. This had everything you'd expect from a classic Northern Rhone; perfumed, floral, beautiful horse saddle leather, roasted meat, blood, subtle bacon. The palate was every bit as good as the nose with elegance and and sophistication, leather, saddle, earth, ethereal, pretty red fruits, and impeccable balance and perfect integration along with a 90+ second finish. Wow, what a treat!!! 97-98pts.
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This is flat-out gorgeous. Beautifully mature, layered aromatics with beef blood, violets, smoke and herbs. The palate is pure silk - utterly seamless with weightless intensity. Finish lingers with incredible lightness and airiness. Just a beautiful wine drinking so well. Loved this.
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Some days you just hit a wine on its perfect day. Mature yet still with fruit, meat, blood orange, game. A beautiful mix of meat- savory, fruit, mineral, and herbs. Effortless and drinking perfectly. 95
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The 1988 Chave (Yapp bottling) is still extremely youthful, and probably a decade away from really showing all its potential. The nose is a fascinating melange of creamy raspberries, cassis, woodsmoke and coco. On the palate, the wine is dense without being fat; lean but not mean, as one taster commented. There is a great deal of intense, concentrated flavor here, and very bright acids, but everything is tightly-knit right now. When this wine pops it should be very ethereal and a magical vintage of Chave Hermitage.
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Chave Dinner (Le Perigord): A little bit tinny/metallic, fully mature with peppery dried red fruit, mostly resolved, savory, a bit tart on the finish. This bottle is starting to dry out and is past prime.
This is a very nice Chave that shows its age in color, has a very nice nose of leather and earth, and has good fruit and a nice finish, although not much supporting it right now. Overall I think it is probably just a bit past its peak, but enjoyable with food and would be drinking up. A-
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Red robe, garnet colour, lively and expressive on the nose with red fruits, peppers, peat, bonfire and gamey meaty notes. On the palate beefy/bovril notes come to the fore and it is as lean as a Cheetah, without being thin. This medium bodied wine lacks the density, mid-plate stuffing and finish of the likes of the 1990 but it is nevertheless an enthralling and riveting wine. I don't think there is any point in holding out for better to come; but neither is there any hurry to drink up.
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Lunch C.A. de la Paulée: Lunch chez Vincent Une bouche acide avec une belle attaque, il a de l'âge, parait un peu oxydatif et semble un peu mince en fruit. Au dévoilement, il nous parait évident que cette bouteille est imparfaite, qu'elle sans doute eu chaud.
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Tasted blind, this wine had a deep red center with light red/orange rims. The medium+ intensity nose of black cherry, orange, soil, and Provencal herbs took a while to develop.
In the mouth, this wine was medium bodied with impressive balance , richness and length. This still appears to need at least 5 more years in the cellar. Thus, it may pick up a point , or even two, with time.
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Northern Rhone Dinner Part 2 - Hermitage (Vancouver, BC): This had such a nice nose. smoked meat, black tea, black olive tapenade with smoky and earthy notes. Still has great depth and structure but it's drinking perfectly right now. Shows so much freshness (great acidity) and focus. Really good stuff. Drink or hold another decade. Excellent.
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Lightening around edges, moving towards a more smokey meaty flavor, hanging on to a little dark fruits but moving more secondary. Med long finish and a nice dry wine.i always like the 88's
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Blood, smoky tapenade, red fruits. On the palate fruit and minerals intermingle with a savoury meaty character. The moderate acid and fine tannins create a firm but refined finish. Balanced. Very Chave. Great wine.
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Los Angeles "Bucket List" Offline (Los Angeles, California): Decanted and followed for three hours. Archetypal Northern Rhone nose of game, olive, and blood. Beautiful balance on the savory palate of red and dark fruits, meatiness, minerality, moderate acidity, and light tannins. Refined and polished – everything integrates into a truly spectacular whole.
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Chave night with the Gelbs. (Christine & Marty's.): Always one of my favorite Chaves, this one is showing beautifully, but with a bit less fruit than usual with the smoked meat character more prominent leading me to believe the wine might be heading to the back side of peak. Normally there's quite a bit of black fruit to the wine, but in this bottle it's somewhat in the background. Silky upfront with wonderful harmony and softness across the palate, the smokiness of the wine is really quite soothing. Nice and meaty with the usual herb, bacon and lavender character and crisp acidity on the finish. My WOTN. A/A-.
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Tobacco and chocolate in the beautiful and mature bouquet with also bacon and spices. On the palate a lot of acidity, minerals, green herbs and still a bit edgy tannin. Already a beautiful wine, but it will improve with more ageing. Not a bad idea to try this again around 2020. 92++
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Epic Boys Trip; 6/13/2012-6/17/2012 (Napa and San Francisco): Compared to the 94 Chave side by side, same red rim, moderate depth of color with a bit more sediment. Aromatically certainly in the mature phase of Chave-ness... iodine and exotic spices speak loudly over very pretty and floral red fruits, tar, slight horse saddle aromas. On the palate the wine has high acidity, a more firm midpalate that has Syrah flesh, more tannins than the 94 that are of similar ripeness and not as fully integrated yet. Great balance, excellent length, very good intensity, fantastic complexity. Wine has great finesse, flawless texture, excellent expression of place and Chave-ness. I think this is ultimately a better wine (though I guess at this point it is about better "bottles" more than better "wines") and will have a longer period of mature drinking pleasure... and boy is it a pleasure. It seems to me that the 88 is slightly underrated on CT compared to other Chave Hermitage vintages???
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Davids & Rhone Dinner (San Francisco): Sweet nose; lovely balanced palate with notably juicy red fruits, integrated tannins, lovely and ready to drink. 92
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Medium- garnet with a tawny rim. Evolved and lifted nose combining earthy, meaty and spicy aromas with still vibrant fruit and barely detectable oak. Silky and delicious on palate with crisp acidity and medium still firm tannins that balance 13% alcohol and elegant body. Leathery, masculine finish. Drinking very well now, has still life ahead.
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Acker BYO 2011 (Tribeca Grill): Lots of barnyard in the nose, meaty and smokey, game, salt. Very meaty and earthy on the palate, pure and elegant. Lots of minerals. Game. Really precise - lots of meat and minerals, bitter on the finish. Nose - 4/6, Palate - 5/6, Finish - 6/6, Je Ne Sais Quoi - 1.5/2 = 16.5/20.
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Good wines and fun times as Nicos returns to New York. (La Fonda Del Sol): Always one of my favorite Chaves and this bottle is showing beautifully. The aromatics are breathtaking and more red fruit dominated than usual. Red plums, violets, spice, black fruit and smoked meat lead make it hard to pull one's nose out of the glass. On the palate the wine is fully integrated and harmonious as it has been for a number of years now and is just a joy to drink. More black fruited on the palate than on the nose with similar flavors as aromas. In a wonderful place and my red wine of the night. A.
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looked like the color of a good burgundy in the glass. nose of smokey leather and earth. in the mouth a nice mix of dark red fruits, med high acidity and smokey meats. med long finish, this wine is in a very nice place right now
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lightening ruby color. nose of peppery cherries with a bit of dirt or leather mixed in. med weight in the mouth with still some fresh dark red fruit there, nice mix of primary and secondary flavors. med long. nice chave
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This was popped and poured; in retrospect I think it needed a couple of hours in the decanter. Bright rub red. Nose of asian spices, rhubarb, strawberry. Very acidic on the entry, but with a light feathery texture that made me think red burgundy. Vigorous finish, with a strong sense of rhubarb pie. There was not the level of complexity that I love about Chave, but it was a great wine nonetheless with a good future. I think it may have suffered by being surrounded by so many other powerful reds we consumed, along with not enough breathing time.
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Peddling for Pebbles 2 (The Ledbury): Ruby to full garnet. Quite a full, ripe, sweetly Chave-like nose. Quite light and clipped on the mid palate after a very rounded and sweet-fruited attack. Tannins quite dry on the medium to long finish. Needs another five years plus. Not a top Chave but a good one. ***(*1/2)
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This potent perfume greets you with aromatics of baked cherries, fresh leaves, truffles, spice, iron, earth and black pepper. Big, juicy and powerful, this mouth filling wine ends with sweet and sour cherry and strawberry filled finish. While drinking well now, a few more years will soften the wine and add complexity.
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Double-decanted for 4 hours before consumption. The color of a 5-year old wine. Interesting nose of roasted meats and animal fur. A fine bottle of this wine but it drank stubbornly young. Excellent black fruit flavors with complex "sauvage" notes. Big-boned with firm acidity and a long-complex finish acompanied by rustic tannins. Needs more time, I think to reveal all its glory but, alas, it's my last bottle. On to the '89 and '90 then.
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Green nuts, mouse whiskers (it's a thing- i.e., a bit "bretty"), and sour red fruit on the nose. A bit grey and dusty on the finish (no decant, no breathing), and lush red, green, and brown fruit on the palate. Would probably have been a 93 or 94 had proper service been insisted upon.
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'88 Northern Rhones at Siggy's: When first poured this was the equal of the other three Northern Rhones. In time it retreated a bit, while the Guigals gained. The nose delivers big, hearty aromas of red fruit, pepper and earthy. The taste is dominated by more red fruit with good minerality. Great presence on the palate and a supple, elegant texture. Perfectly balanced. Great length on the finish. A worthy adversary that just came up a bit short tonight.
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Dinner with Steve at Buku, Raleigh, NC. Wow, was this wine showing well tonight! Ruby in the glass, the fruit here was concentrated, deep and very pure. Medium plus in body, this had a velvety and silky texture to it. The balance of fruit and acid is truly harmonious in this great wine of distinction and class. Classic Chave nose loaded with black cherries, dark chocolate, violets and other floral scents and a meaty, smoky, hot stone character to it. Complex and refined and well resolved/ready to drink today but this will continue to drink well for many years to come. 50+14+13+9+9 = 95
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Chave at Palate (Glendale, CA.): This was a very good bottle just not great. Bretty, herbal and green aromatics. Some balance issues with is wine with the acidity poking out which comprimised the length. Compared to its counterparts, the weakest of the reds.
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Really aromatic of beef blood, asian spices, and red and black fruit. Wine is fully resolved and has an almost ethereal texture. Flavors on the palate took a while to come around but built over time in the glass. The burgundian nature of this wine made it a really good pairing with the rabbit stew I had. 93 points.
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The best of many bottles of this wine I've had. Nothing much on the nose - a certain rubber almost petrol quality, but on the palate very expressive with a sort of refined earthiness and really excellemt length. Much prefer the 89 and 90.
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Very Burgundian in style, Aged color with high acidity ( like Burgs again ). Clean floral nose with mixed red fruits, got better with its 2nd part of the bottle. The tannin picked up some sweet which went along very well with its acidity. Very fine wine overall. This wine makes me wanna find some other Chave Hermitage to try.
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Just effortless class. Fully resolved, silky palate with perfect balance/precision. WOTN for me although the 98 Rostaing Cote Blonde may be better in the future.
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Great stuff. Initially seemed shy next to the '98 Jamet, which was more emphatic and outgoing, but once I started to focus on this it distinguishes itself, mostly in texture. The mouthfeel has that plushness to it that almost feels more like inhaling a cloud of wine than drinking a liquid. No rough edges whatsoever. The flavors, though, are still weighty and meaty. Chave never disappoints.
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Belated Peking Duck House notes. Mostly Rhone, some Burgs, Champagne & California. (Peking Duck House- Midtown): Whaddya know? I completely forgot I had this when I wrote my note about a bottle Chris Kravitz brought to my place a week ago. Funny enough, the notes are almost identical. The wine is really in a beautiful place right now. Shows a ton of class and elegance and has great length and persistence across the palate. This bottle shows a little more peppery spiciness than the one over Labor Day and a little bit more of a mélange between black and red fruit, but the meat, herb, lavender and iron are still there. Gorgeous wine. A.
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Kruger's 75th (Corsair): I didn't find this to have as much going on as the '87. Quite a bit more funky earth going on, especially on the nose. The fruit is definitely there, just overshadowed by some funky brett. Asian spices, also very exotic, black plums, and leather. The palate is quite out of whack with high acid, firm tannin, and lack of fruit.
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Display’s nice vibrant garnet color, no bricking evident, clear at the rim. The nose was more muted than other ‘88’s have had providing some nice red fruits, leather, a bit of game and forest floor. In the mouth a bit restrained & dusty but the tannins seem to be finally in the background. Although there was certainly nice balance and elegance if I had a nit to pick it would be that the acid stuck out a bit. Certainly a nice bottle of wine but, I think that I still prefer the La Chapelle in 1988.
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Fantastic nose of game, horsehide, tobacco, ripe fruit. A definite wine of the night at Charlie Trotter's Las Vegas (next to 2005 SQN Atlantis and a number of others).
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This wine slipped through the cracks for the group and wasn't much discussed. Not the power/freshness of the younger wines and less secondary complexity than the older. Rather in-between. But I liked this a lot. Chave balance and elegance throughout. On the darker side and carried more by structure than fruit. Drinking well now and should evolve nicely for a few more years.
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Rednecks & Rhones Chave-a-thon. Light ruby in color with a little bricking around the edges. A little stink at first which mostly blew off but some remained throughout. Very minerally. Drying tannins on the finish. Good but not the best showing for this vintage. 50+11+12+7.5+7.5 = 88
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With braised lamb shanks. Wow, what a great pairing! The wine is brick colored with noticable amber on the rim. Rich, mature nose is gamey with all sorts of complex notes; the underlying fruit aromas run to griotte cherries and pomegranate, but I get leather, beeswax, mushrooms, garrigue. Burgundian mouthfeel with rich extraction but substantial acidity and a very long, complex, mineral-laden finish. A really fantastic bottle nearing its peak (with a very long future)
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atlanta blue nose group hermitage tasting which included 88,89,90 chave, 88, 89, 90 jaboulet la chappelle, 89, 90, 91 sorrell le greal and 89, 90, 91 chapoutier pavillon. this wine didn't compare to some from the 89 and 90 vintage but was in the top third of the night. plenty of restrained fruit and typical of the vintage.restrained variety
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The 88 Chave was just beautiful and certainly overshadowed the Thalabert (though not completely). It was very Hermitage and very 88, with a solid frame, a softened menthol core, very delineated complex nose, and all sorts of things going on. This wine I think qualitatively overshadowed everything else but not overwhelmingly so. But it had a weight and complexity that put it solidly in another class. This bottle was courtesy of Jeff Fisher and was highly appreciated.
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Very Special Evening at Picholine (Picholine Wine Room, NYC): Tight nose of tobacco and dark red fruit. Tender and delicate on the palate. Thin and acidic in the way I love it to be. Beautiful, gentle red fruits. Ripe strawberries. Very nice wine.
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Northern Rhone Tasting (Brad's house, Seattle): Tarry nebbiolo-esque nose. Flavors much more in line with mature Syrah. Like the Jaboulet Crozes Thalabert 88, quite high in acid, but with more buffering tannins and dry extract. Bloomed gloriuosly over 45 minutes to reveal peanut shell, but just a touch of bacon.
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I picked this up for a song at a somewhat local restaurant. Given my inexperience with Hermitage and the price I paid (one usually gets what one pays for), take the following with a grain of salt. On first opening, the color was surprisingly young for a 19 yr old wine, showing just a hint of orange at the rim. The nose was mostly brett. After an hour or so in the bottle, the nose gained complexity adding iron and meat. A bit later, red fruits came out. Then some herbs. The nose was always fairly subtle, perhaps overwhelmed by the brett. The palate also improved with time, adding tannins and acid as the night wore on, seemingly fighting the wine's intrinsic balance, but losing. The finish ended up being the best part of the wine, very long and complex. In the end, with an hour or so in a decanter, I think this would be about as good a wine as one could want at the table. With the balance, acid, tannins, and spectacular finish, it'll pair very well with, say, lamb chops. But it doesn't necessarily have the complexity to reward extended time with just the wine. For the $250-300 this apparently goes for, I think one could do a lot better. For the price I paid, I'm satisfied.
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Dinner at Schwa. Dark ruby in color, this medium bodied wine showed the classic minerality of Chave along with sour cherries. Nice acidity. A really nice wine but not as deep or intense as recent examples of the '89, '90, '99 or '03. Medium plus length on the finish. When the thought of those stronger vintages is released from the mind and this wine is ranked on its' own merits, it is really quite enjoyable. 50+12+12+8.5+8.5 = 91
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Mmm, a gorgeous, blasting nose of smoked meat and tar leaps from the glass. The palate is tart, poised and bright with red cherry, gaining meatiness and heft. Just gorgeous, classic Hermitage.
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This wine is still youthful but possesses the most enticing nose of roasted meats and black minerals. After breathing for 90 minutes, it begins to show fabulous complex flavors of charred beef, aged cassis and....yes, a Guinness. Has a texture reminiscent of a red burgundy but finishes with a rustic coarseness and an incredibly satsdfying black fruit intensity. I'm beginning to understand Chave's Hermitage. It's more of an intellectual experience than a blockbuster wine with a unique flavor that tastes like the middle ages. OK, well, I'm trashed.
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Deep colored with a perfume reminiscent of spicy, black fruit and cherries blended with minerals. The powerful, palate presence mixed black and red fruits with a great cherry core. Full bodied and close to full maturity, the wine continued improving in the glass over a few hours.
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Older Rhones - Group #4, My #6 - Medium red with a little lightening. Full aroma of slightly stewey acidic red fruit and cedar notes. Ripe spicy black fruit. Still almost a little tight? 3/06
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Chave dinner (Raleigh, NC): Dark garnet in color, this was almost as dark as the youngest wine of the flight, the '94. Full bodied with deep and rich fruit and a glyceral mouthfeel. Long finish. A great bottle, almost the equal of the '90 that was sitting next to it. 50+13+13+8.5+8.5 = 93
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San Francisco offline at Bizou (San Francisco, CA): This was probably the best nose of the night except for perhaps the Beaucastel. Cracked black pepper, roasted meat and lots of gently wafting sweet, black fruit. At first the palate seemed less forgiving, very acidic and somewhat tough and chewy. However, with time and food this relaxed quite a bit and became more approachable. Massive notes of bacon eventually came out on the nose and palate.
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Corked. There was powerful, delicious fruit behind the taint, and this bottle seemed more youthful and with a stronger palate than the example (great bouquet, fading palate) I had at the Bizou offline in Jan. 2005.
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Decanted and drank over the following 6 hours. When the wine was first opened it was tight. The only thing that was obvious was that this was a young wine with mouth searing tannins. After an hour it started to give and show itself. The wine started to sing after 3 hours in the decanter. Up until the last glass, SIX hours later, the wine continued to open and put on weight. Dense dark ruby in color. Classic nose of earth, wild game and a hint of cassis. After four hours the cassis really comes through and coats the palate. Big wine with lots of tannins but given enough air, the lush fruit balances them out. Will continue to improve with at least another 5-10 in years in the cellar and may merit a higher score.
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4/26/2024 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 95 Points
Double decanted for 4 hours prior to serving. fair bit of sediment to get rid off. It was totally in the zone after that time with lovely acidity but also enough sweetness to make it a rather mellow drink without a hard edge and plenty of character olive tapenade and beef blood. No bret here a really succulent pure bottle that felt on a gentle decline but certainly still in the late prime time drinking window. Probably a vintage to be opening up now and over the next 10 years based on this bottle.
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3/17/2024 - acyso wrote: 95 Points
Heater week; 3/8/2024-3/17/2024 (Chicago, IL): Initially somewhat stern and unyielding, high acid and structure, and not very expressive. Far better a few hours in, with more elegance and the expected rusticity for Chave of that era. Very red-fruited.
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3/7/2024 - thesternowl wrote: 94 Points
Rhône or Nôwhere 2.0 (Malcolm, NE): The 1988 Chave Hermitage Rouge came out guns blazing and super primal with mushrooms, organic earth, rotundone, loads of coffee, and even some spinach accompanying the dried fruit set. Complex doesn’t even begin to describe and it seemed as if it was just getting started. A classic pairing with grilled lamb and Moroccan spices. Drink now through 2040. Merci Matt!
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3/1/2024 - vvWine.ch wrote: 84 Points
Gereiftes Rubin, deutliche Alterstöne. Die Nase ist weit entwickelt, die Todessüsse dringt durch, Tabak, Leder, etwas Maggikraut, durchaus komplex, jedoch sehr reif. Im Gaumen straff, mittlerer Körper, wenig Frucht, die Tannine sind abgeschmolzen, das Säuregerüst stützt. Angenehm langer Abgang,
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1/21/2024 - dream wrote:
slightly corked
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12/12/2023 - Collector1855 wrote: 96 Points
Salon Ficofi Paris walkabout tasting and dinner, no detailed tasting notes. Wow, complex, earthy, farmyard, leather.
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12/11/2023 - steinersing wrote: 97 Points
Superb - multi layered and expressive
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12/8/2023 - Burgundy Al wrote:
Birthday Celebration (State Street Manor & Racquet Club - Chicago IL): Walk around tasting, brief note from memory. Black fruit and meat are getting tired. Not nearly as interesting as a few bottles from a couple of years ago.
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10/1/2023 - yaCellar Likes this wine: 97 Points
Drinking fantastically and improves with a touch of air
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9/25/2023 - Jeff Leve wrote: 97 Points
Smoke, charcoal, crushed stones, dried flowers, cherries, and plums create the core of this wine. The palate is long, fresh, clean, and loaded with mineral-laden red fruits, green olives, and peppery spice. Drink from 2023-2035.
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9/16/2023 - BradE wrote:
A fantastic bottle. Supported by Billy Childs, Jason Palmer, Matt Penman and Ari Hoenig. Both music and wine rated 100.
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3/4/2023 - Wine Canuck wrote: 96 Points
Northern Rhone-a-thon: This pours medium garnet with a faint touch of green at the rim. The nose is absolutely stunning, soaring with white pepper, leather, tobacco, gamey lamb meat, wet hay, dark cherry, furniture, a touch of pickle, dried black currant, and dried blueberry. The palate is lovely, textured and silky with medium minus velvety tannin and medium acid. The finish is long and complex replaying much of the nose. All in all this was one of the surprises of the evening for me. Quite surprised I preferred this to the 89, at least today. I could see some feeling that the brett is above their tolerance level, but nobody at this table was complaining, and it's easily within acceptable limits for me. Just sensational stuff in my view. I think I liked this a tad more than most at the table.
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1/28/2023 - burginner wrote: flawed
badly corked
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9/27/2022 - aagrawal wrote: 94 Points
Dinner with the wine group (Zazie's, San Francisco): Light ruby; incredible intensity aromatics, mature aromatics, earthy, dust, incredibly complex, a bit of soy, still seems like it has some fruit; palate is medium bodied, vibrant medium-plus acidity, low-medium alcohol; finish is medium length. Exceptionally well balanced, incredible aromatics, not super-long on the finish but I don’t really care when I’m drinking it… 94-95
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9/18/2022 - drwine2001 wrote:
Sunday Lunch with Raveneau Chablis and Chave Hermitage (Piccino Restaurant, San Francisco): Light ruby, watery rim. Fragrant herbs and light fruit. Light weight. Supple entry with faded red fruit and orange rind. Then it turns more peppery and ends with soil and little remaining tannin. As was another bottle last year, subtle, lovely, complex, and emblematic of the Chave style. Not a "wow" wine and probably never at the qualitative level of either the 2010 or 2005 which preceded it, this is more old style and was deeply satisfying. A great way to end the skein of Chave vintages we were fortunate enough to taste today.
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6/23/2022 - acyso wrote: 90 Points
Chave: "In the name of science" (Chicago, IL): ...but I just don't think that this bottle showed too well either. It seemed a little volatile and I kept getting periodic whiffs of something that seemed too close to TCA for comfort. Then again, I'm probably overly sensitive to it. This was a thinning wine; tart red fruits and just weak and emaciated on the palate. Angular acidity and tannins both. I've certainly had better bottles of this before and can only chalk this up to bottle variation.
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6/23/2022 - acyso wrote: flawed
Chave: "In the name of science" (Chicago, IL): Corked. Fortunately we had a backup...
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1/19/2022 - robferguson1 wrote: 92 Points
This is nice but may be beyond its best.
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12/31/2021 - Brain Capers Likes this wine:
After cleaning the top of cork, was able to gently remove in one piece. Left the bottle open for an hour. A very nice older wine, in a very nice place, for its age. No fading, but a fair amount of sediment. Went lovely with braised rabbit. Bought this in a little wine shop in Tain la Hermitage, for about $20! The owner was using the old roll over tissue and carbon paper credit card ‘reader’. Nice memory.
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12/16/2021 - joshabramson Likes this wine: 94 Points
A bit of funk at first, but cleaned up nicely with a bit of air. Elegant and pretty with lots of nice red fruit, a probably not a perfect bottle... I've been told there's a lot of bottle variation with older Chave, and this is probably a good but not great bottle of 88.
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12/6/2021 - Jeff Leve wrote: 96 Points
Aromatically complex with layers of sweet, elegant, earthy, red fruits, there is a gorgeous refined quality here, with ample depth of flavor, energy length and complexity today making this a top vintage for Chave. Plus, it is drinking in the sweet spot. Mature Chave has become tremendously expensive over the past few years, while still quite pricey, when compared to the 89 & 90, this is a well-priced vintage for Chave.
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11/21/2021 - Burgundy Al wrote: 94 Points
Chave Hermitage Dinner (Greenwood - Highwood IL): Single blind in 82/88/89 flight. Opened several hours in advance, double decanted. Big, bold and powerful black fruit, even without any sense of ripeness. Meaty and spicy, with everything in perfect proportion. From the same case as another bottle tasted earlier this year, but tonight's bottles was double decanted in advance (vs popped-and-poured) and the wine showed substantially better tonight.
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11/21/2021 - KenK Likes this wine: 95 Points
Stunning big dark brooding quality to this wine. Large scale black fruits with nice richness and great spice. Toasted and toasted with good power, spice and length.
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11/10/2021 - wineguy75 Likes this wine: 95 Points
90 min decant. Olive, velvety. less monolithic than other Chaves i've drunk, one of my favorite Chave's. would have guessed blind cote rotie. Some more barnyard qualities. Later part of drinking window.
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10/3/2021 - bill00 wrote: 92 Points
From magnum but there was some seepage and this wasn't quite as youthful and pristine as I was hoping it would be. Solid and enjoyable but there are better bottles of this.
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9/17/2021 - europat55 wrote: 92 Points
Nose: 92-93; Palate: 92
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7/18/2021 - drwine2001 wrote:
Summer Dinner (Los Gatos, California): After having the 1998 last night, we had the good fortune of a friend opening this tonight. Light garnet. Stemmy, fennel, French Syrah nose with a touch of woodsmoke. Lean, dry, high acid. Discrete, mineral, and classic. There is a remaining core of red fruit buried deeply beneath the structure, but it doesn’t last long once the bottle gets sime air. Wonderful but much more old school and less silky and supple than the ‘98.
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6/12/2021 - glou.sf Likes this wine: 94 Points
Interesting nose of forest floors, red fruit, cherries, and some brett. Nice acidity on the palate with savory notes, more red berries, and some funk/brett. Good finish. This was a tiny bit rustic, I was expecting a more elegant and refined wine. It's very interesting and complex nonetheless.
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6/4/2021 - jee27 wrote: 94 Points
Dégustation Open Dreamer Style chez Simon B: Belle surprise je m'attendais à un vin fatigué mais il a maintenu son niveau longtemps dans mon verre. Bouquet complexe et tertaire de notes fumées, de viandes séchées, olives noires et j'en passe. La bouche est tendre et soyeuse. Très belle bouteille considérant qu'elle venait de chez Champlain C.
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5/16/2021 - Nanda wrote: 93 Points
Beautiful in its own right though a bit overshadowed by the ‘85. Also complex with lots of tertiary meat and olive notes. Lithe and graceful on the palate.
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5/16/2021 - Burgundy Al wrote: 92 Points
COVID-19 in the Rear-View Mirror...with Lots of Dom Perignon (Park Ridge Country Club): Also on the elegant side vs powerful, with more fruit vs 19985 but less spice and complexity. Very good now. I haven't had this wine in at least a decade, so was happy to see it show up tonight.
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1/2/2021 - bill00 wrote: 92 Points
Very good but not great bottle of this. Great silky palate but the aromatics weren't as good as prior bottles and were a little dirty.
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12/19/2020 - Dave Canada wrote: 96 Points
Wow...this is in an fantastic place. Dried flowers, sweet herbs, cassis, fresh sage, black olive, sweet cherry, plum and smoked meat.
This is a delicate, mesmorizing masterpiece! So pure...so layered....so long.
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12/12/2020 - tinybubbles Likes this wine: 92 Points
Typical and yet could have benefited from more palate definition
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10/15/2020 - Raage Likes this wine: 92 Points
(CDV)
Petite austérité à l'ouverture, d'abord un peu animal, un peu dur en bouche. Un millésime parait-il austère pendant longtemps. Puis le nez s'est ouvert, profond, épicé, boisé (bois précieux), cuiré, petis fruits rouges à l'alcool. La bouche a suivi, partant d'une structure d'abord dure, "sèche" voir asséchante; il a ainsi évolué et tout s'est estompé en mangeant (carré de porc juste cuit et son jus corsé).
Comme il ne fait pas son age, il a encore qq belles années devant lui le bougre!
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10/6/2020 - Brain Capers Likes this wine:
On a visit to Tain la Hermitage, a small wine shop in downtown, Chave Hermitage at $20 a bottle. Ran the Amex card under the press and tissue machine, remember those? Wonderful old wine, Frank Sinatra, pure and sweet. Just lovely memories.
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7/5/2020 - flah00 Likes this wine: 90 Points
This bottle showed signs of old seepage. The cork was loose and snapped into dust. The remainder of the cork was soaked and difficult to remove. So, I found myself filtering the wine through a paper towel, which removed a good deal of sediment, which deeply affected the flavor.
Initially very truffley and some blackberry perhaps a floral note. The acidity, at first was pleasant. But it broke down quickly and became too vinegary.
I reserved a bit in the bottle, unfiltered. The fruit was incredibly intact and tannins were lively. Never again will I filter with cloth.
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6/23/2020 - Burgnick Likes this wine: 92 Points
Similar sensation as the previous bottle but less freshness with lots of sediments.
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5/27/2020 - tinybubbles Likes this wine: 92 Points
Dark fruit, mid-range spice, slightly drying finish.
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4/11/2020 - tinybubbles Likes this wine: 92 Points
Good bottle. Dark fruit here and very clean. 92-93
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4/3/2020 - Burgnick Likes this wine: 93 Points
Herbs, iron, red fruit, decay and dried flowers. The palate gained weight and depth with air with ethereal sweet red fruit. Might not be as wow as 89 and 90, but it was not too far off from them.
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12/21/2019 - Kemo Sabe Likes this wine: 93 Points
Very solid bottle of 88 just a little lost in a great line of up Chave wines. More resolved and elegant than the 90 in the next glass. The was prettier and more delicate. Very enjoyable.
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11/17/2019 - Nanda wrote: 92 Points
A Whole Lotta Chave Hermitage (Single Blind) (Chez Kailin): 83/88/89/90/Ringer Flight. Attractive, mature nose if a bit modest particularly next to the 89 and 90. Aromas of mature black fruit, funk, tar and some toasted spice/herb. Moderately concentrated and still fresh. Meaty black fruit with ethereal spice. Very good though this clearly suffered from the relative comparison with the other worldly 89 and 90 in the flight. My #3, Group #3.
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8/10/2019 - cfk49 wrote: 98 Points
This vintage has always been my favorite of the 1988-89-90-91 quartet (including the Cathelins in 1990 and 1991). It's been my experience than the Chave Hermitages (at least those Gérard made) go through an extra blossoming at 25-30 years of age, and that is the case with this one. Smoky Chave perfume followed by intense, precise, pure plum fruit in a medium-full body with great penetration and a fair amount of power. This wine can age well for decades more. Cellared since original release, this is the Kermit Lynch import.
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5/22/2019 - tinybubbles Likes this wine: 93 Points
Very good bottle, depth of fruit and some zip across the palate.
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5/10/2019 - coteamor wrote: 97 Points
Smoke, coffee bean on the nose - but to taste it’s the impeccable balance that strikes me between the sauvage character of Hermitage and the elegance of Chave.
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4/19/2019 - tinybubbles Likes this wine: 93 Points
Dusty but broad spice notes. Varied red fruit with very good energy on the finish for what this wine typically is these days. Great bottle.
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4/2/2019 - tinybubbles Likes this wine: 90 Points
From magnum. Light bret initially turned into heavy bret. Some metallic notes. Typical and good, if a little rustic, for the first 15 minutes, but then became quite feral. 90-
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3/25/2019 - salil wrote: 95 Points
Chave and cassoulet: Brilliant wine. My favorite of the 85-88-89 flight, and one of my favorites of the night. There's more intensity and power to the fruit here than in the '85, and while it's also showing lots of cured meat and smoky flavours, the flavours are a bit cleaner than the '85 - more polished and less sauvage, with the red fruit coming through very clearly beneath. There's still a touch of fine grained tannin lingering on the back, though I get the impression this is on the back end of a plateau, or just starting on the downslope.
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3/25/2019 - acyso wrote: 95 Points
The King in the North! (Chicago, IL): I think at the end of the day, I liked this more than others at the table. The nose was initially quite unyielding, showing quite closed, but swirling it brings out more of the red fruit, some herbal elements, and a splotch of blood. In fact, the nose seems to get more and more intense with air. The palate is definitely on the lighter side, with the red fruit at the forefront. There's a delicacy here that I love, but right behind it is this massive acid-driven structure that is quite imposing.
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3/8/2019 - Beaunedoc Likes this wine: 94 Points
Purchased at a Kings Market in northern NJ for $39.99. Those were the days........
Very vibrant, preserved by good fruit and good acidity. Smoke, bacon, cocoa powder, stewed red fruits. I said raspberries but my dining companion said sour cherries. No fade even 90 minutes after opening. The hallmark for me was the acidity. The fat in the braised beef with winter vegetables could not overwhelm the cut of this wine. I see no reason to hold this any further. It had all the features of a mature wine that one could ask.
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2/23/2019 - murkybird Likes this wine: 96 Points
Potent and poignant noise of hung game and bramble. Beautiful and precise red cherry fruit balanced by a nice vein of acidity that carries the persistent finish. Some older northern Rhônes seem to be almost totally savory and starved for fruit but everything is in balance here.
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2/3/2019 - jgh123 wrote: 94 Points
My last bottle. Cassoulet dinner with 89 & 98 vintages. More maturity than the last time I drank this several years ago but not at all faded. Nice to have with the other two vintages. Just terrific!
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1/25/2019 - DrinkBordeaux wrote: 97 Points
Jean Louis Chave Hermitage Tasting (Wine Watch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida): From a magnum, which perhaps added to its excellent showing. Very dark color. A much earthier nose, with more sweet barnyard seasoning. Dark fruits, leather, black pepper, anise, and violets on the nose. Seriously dense, rich, and layered on the palate. Never tired throughout the evening. A long, lingering finish with medium-plus acidity. Not the tannic spine of the 1990, but still well structured. For me, this was essentially equal to the 1971 (for its mature charm) and the 1990 (for its concentration and overall potential). Impossible for me to really pick a WOTN on this evening.
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12/25/2018 - glorandsno wrote: flawed
Flawed. Had a pronounced, odd, sharp pine resin or juniper flavor. May not have been stored properly. Sadly it had turned into something other than wine, let alone wine from a storied Hermitage producer.
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12/7/2018 - Vinophiliac559 wrote: flawed
Corked. Initial pour (cellar temp) I was pretty sure there was TCA but the palate had so much potential, I could taste the underlying greatness just somewhat muffled. As the wine warmed it was overwhelmed by tca and became undrinkable. Such a sad bottle to lose to tca
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11/8/2018 - Kemo Sabe Likes this wine: 93 Points
In a tasting with Verset and Gentaz which is not fair. This has a good amount of red cherry and spice. Classic Chave perfume and spice. Compared to the Verset and Gentaz this lacked the same depth but was still very good. Plenty of time left here. On its own would probably rate higher.
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11/6/2018 - MC2 Wines wrote: 92 Points
Unicorn Rhones (aka a taste-off btwn Verset and Gentaz with a few bonuses) (Momofuku Ko): Really interesting to try the Chave next to the Verset and the Gentaz. It was interesting because there was an opinion at the table that this might just have been a bad bottle of Chave - at the very least it didn't seem in quite the same ballpark as the other two. That's possibly true. As someone who thinks Chave is good but not great wine though (and therefore not really worth the price tag) I wasn't all that surprised that it didn't quite hit the same level. This was much fruitier than most Chaves I've had. Mostly dominated by a red currant. Some spice and some animal, but those pieces take a background role. Compared to the other two wines, it feels a bit less interesting or with that je ne sais quoi if that makes any sense. But on its own I think it would be quite enjoyable. Interesting to have the comparison. Wonder how it would have gone with a LaLa.
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9/14/2018 - jdtonic Likes this wine: 93 Points
Sour cherries. Some coffee, some —- no notes. There was some white pepper, yeah.
Was in the mood for berries.
Added a bit of honey.
—A bit better, but the sourness suggested to my nostrils a 3 hour stint in the back of a locked Volvo Wagon, a 1977 diesel, green in the summer, in northern Michigan—
Then gave it away. Twice.
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9/1/2018 - DrinkBordeaux wrote: 96 Points
Super Rhône tasting (Wine Watch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida): This was the consensus wine of the night, though this was partially because this wine was at its peak while the knockout wines from 2003 were young and far from maturity. The nose just never quit, with red fruits, cigar box, espresso, truffle, smoke, and lots of pepper. There was so much depth to the nose. And the palate was just as strong. Full-bodied with impressive density and concentration. It was hard to find a flaw here, and it was a wine that was difficult to forget, with its resonating finish. Superb, but still a notch below the 1989 and other-worldly 1990.
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8/4/2018 - R.H. Likes this wine:
corkage at pasquale jones. took a while to come around, and I wouldn't be shy about giving this some air if opening a bottle. was a bit roasted and plummy. over time that faded a bit and the wine developed length and vibrancy on the palate. a thoroughly enjoyable, if not transcendent, bottle of win.
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7/4/2018 - cfk49 wrote: 94 Points
Initially eclipsed by the 1990, but with time this came on and assumed its place as the superior wine with body, elegance, and smoky animal fruits. Cellared since original release. Kermit Lynch Import.
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5/24/2018 - Mrbuzz Likes this wine: 96 Points
Manresa (Los Gatos, Ca.): What a treat! Perfectly stored bottle...silky and pure dark berry fruits, cherry skin freshness, seamless, haunting aromas of dried flowers, tilled herb garden, cigar wrapper, sous bois...deep and engaging wine.
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3/11/2018 - Mpower Likes this wine: 96 Points
Decanted 80 minutes. Garnet red, with much less bricking than one might expect. Nose of leather, cured meat, forest floor and dried flowers. Sweet cherry and juicy (not jammy!) blackberry on the palate. Medium acidity, medium+ body. Tannins are oh-so-smooth and the finish is long and full of minerality with just a hint of pepper. Wish I had a case of this but alas, it was my only bottle.
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10/13/2017 - tinybubbles wrote: 91 Points
Attractive soft spice nose with dark red fruit. But the palate on this bottle was not pristine, with the backpalate and finish fading in both intensity and focus
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9/27/2017 - Rupert wrote: 93 Points
Sharp, earthy, but really fruity in the middle, a balsamic streak. Super, as you'd expect.
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7/26/2017 - luxurycarmina wrote: flawed
Something wrong here, just an off bottle I think
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5/20/2017 - MAOC wrote:
Double decanted 2-3 hours before drinking. This showed very well, with a cooler / austere profile of raspberry, redcurrant and slightly deeper-pitched fruit, smarter leather, and hints of meatiness and soil evolution. Most people's preference in the 88-89-91 flight ****1/2+
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5/9/2017 - MrOctoberfest Likes this wine:
Very similar to the 1990 Chave in both taste and structure, but missing some of the fireworks of its' younger sibling.
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2/21/2017 - mdefreitas wrote: 94 Points
Rhone Dinner @The Shish Kebab House (West Hartford, CT): Such a lovely, delicate, well-aged Hermitage. Evolved, with dried fruit, leather, spice and smoke. This kept changing and gaining in complexity as it sat in the glass. A subtle wine that demands your attention.
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1/27/2017 - tinybubbles Likes this wine: 92 Points
A bottle with less to say than others, and what it did have to say was not particularly articulate. That being said, the Chave style from a vintage such as this, and with some age, doesn't require translation to enjoy. 92+
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1/5/2017 - PanosKakaviatos Likes this wine: 95 Points
Holiday dinner organized by Ken Brown with many great wines! (Ripple Restaurant in Washington D.C.): What clean precision and focus! Some used "wild" descriptions but I just found this gorgeously linear and long on the palate. Sure, also intense and dense - as a Syrah based northern Rhone should be, especially from a producer with such a great reputation. Let's cut to the chase: while my glass of 1990 was still existing, I finished off the 1988.
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11/7/2016 - David Paris (dbp) wrote: 94 Points
15 vintages of Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage, Rouge and Blanc (E&R Wine Shop, Portland OR): And who'd have thunk it... the '88 steals the show for the reds tonight! This was beautifully expressive, showing sweet soil with just the slightest bit of VA, but in a lovely way. Rich and puckering. The palate is lovely on entry, with a really nice, pure, confidently mature fruit flavors ready for you. Elegant and integrated with pleasing intensity and perfect balance throughout. Sweet soil shows up on the finish, which still has plenty of acid to pucker your mouth. Beautiful with lots of elegance. This is a perfectly integrated, pretty and expressive wine at present.
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11/1/2016 - Jeff Leve wrote: 94 Points
A treat indeed. Splash decanted, the wine was perched between, rustic charm and refinement. Sweet, red fruits, iron, earth and stone notes were all over the place. Not as concentrated or lush as the top years, but quite complex, charming and fully mature.
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7/19/2016 - BradE wrote:
An absolutely perfect 88 Chave. Money. More please.
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3/24/2016 - tinybubbles wrote: 93 Points
Elegant dark fruit and spice notes on the nose, complex and evolving over the course of two hours. Strong front palate but in general the palate did not live up to the nose on this occasion. I found this bottle lacking some of the darker smoke, fruit and earth notes on the finish, that I typically enjoy with this wine. 93-94
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2/19/2016 - bill00 wrote: 97 Points
Similar notes to a year ago. Gorgeous. This is just a beautiful wine in a perfect spot of maturity. Amazing aromatics, intensity without weight and fully resolved, silky structure. 80s Chave are just in a great place right now generally speaking. Love this wine.
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11/28/2015 - Papies wrote: 97 Points
Le fuck you Isis Lunch (La Tour D'Argent, Paris): No decanting and could have used. Bit as it had a lot of fine sediment.
The colour is not of a 27 yr old wine. Very much the same for the fruit in the magnificent wine ,vibrant, rich , alive and with a nice liquorice notes. Similarly on the palate, the tannin is silky yet very much firm and was a masterclass of purity and elegance.weeould dare say this is ontheyoungside. 97-98
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5/25/2015 - T.E.D. wrote: 92 Points
Consumed out of magnum. Limited notes but from what I can remember this exhibited robust barnyard, funk and earthy aromas with an equally earthy and dry palate. Very nice tough berry and herbal quality. The true essence of hermitage.
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5/24/2015 - Old Joe Likes this wine: 90 Points
tried a second bottle and much to my amazement it was far superior to the previous bottle. the wine definitely needs some air prior to drinking and while the cork showed some signs of leakage the wine was fine. I do not think this wine has that much longer life left in it
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5/11/2015 - Old Joe wrote: 86 Points
Very thin a big disappointment. I will try another bottle very soon to determine if the bottle or the wine
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5/5/2015 - Jeremy Holmes wrote:
It was a little funky with some equine action on the nose. Very earthy in the mouth with sweet meat flavours and a dry, chewy finish.
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5/2/2015 - eboracum wrote: 83 Points
Both tonight's Hermitages were disappointing but this one particularly so being well over the hill. There was a fully stained cork and a little ullage (lower neck) but I have had excellent wines from worse bottles in these respects. Colour distinctly tawny at the rim. Nose definitely porty with a cabbage tinge. The palate was better with full/medium body, plenty of rich fruit, lively varnish tinged acidity and minerals and fine length and structure but it was somewhat disjointed and there was a hint of rottenness but not enough to prevent drinkability. Very frustrating because there were glimpses of what greatness might have been there 5 years ago.
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3/30/2015 - fcxj wrote: 88 Points
Ok
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3/28/2015 - JeffGMorris Likes this wine: 98 Points
Dinner at Brasa, Raleigh, NC. I'm very fortunate to have a wife with great taste and knowledge of wine. Going to a Brazilian steakhouse we knew the meal would be mostly red meat. Having a primarily white cellar this some times causes a lot of extra thought on what to open. Dena says either Chave or Bonneau when I ask her. I know we're guaranteed a winner and after some discussion we decide on the '88 Chave. Terrific fill level and the cork comes out looking closer to a 2 year old bottle than a 27 year old bottle ( I know it's legit as it's from a 6 pack I bought over a decade ago before prices soared on Chave and fakes became a concern). Beautiful ruby with virtually no bricking. Loaded with cherries, raspberries, minerality and smoke - classic Chave. Tasting on the young side but the tannins have almost all melted away just leaving deep and concentrated fruit. Long fruity finish. A really great bottle. I had to laugh as our waiter was in training and had an " experienced" waiter with him. You could tell that the so called experienced waiter knew nothing about wine, which is fine, but tried to come off as an expert when opening the bottle while at the same time seeming to have an attitude that people bringing their own wine were just being cheap not trying to have a great aged bottle. He was quickly shown up by the waiter in training who spent some time in the wine business and said "the '88 should be great right now. I'd highly recommend the house special picanya". A great bottle. Well stored bottles should keep drinking well for at least a decade. 50+14+15+9.5+9.5=98
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2/18/2015 - chablis28 wrote: 98 Points
What Kevin said. This is the single best Chave I've ever had. Profound! Only a great Burg or Nebbi could surpass this. This even managed to ...easily... push my '07 Allemande out of contention for WOTN.
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2/18/2015 - rocknroller wrote: 98 Points
Northern Rhones (Strip Club Meat and Fish, St. Paul, MN): Dark red color with a clear 2mm margin. PNP, drank 1 glass over an hour plus. This was flat out ridiculously good. I have to echo bill00's comments. Wow, killer nose and palate, very complex and beautifully integrated. This had everything you'd expect from a classic Northern Rhone; perfumed, floral, beautiful horse saddle leather, roasted meat, blood, subtle bacon. The palate was every bit as good as the nose with elegance and and sophistication, leather, saddle, earth, ethereal, pretty red fruits, and impeccable balance and perfect integration along with a 90+ second finish. Wow, what a treat!!! 97-98pts.
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1/10/2015 - bill00 wrote: 97 Points
This is flat-out gorgeous. Beautifully mature, layered aromatics with beef blood, violets, smoke and herbs. The palate is pure silk - utterly seamless with weightless intensity. Finish lingers with incredible lightness and airiness. Just a beautiful wine drinking so well. Loved this.
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12/20/2014 - cct wrote: 95 Points
Some days you just hit a wine on its perfect day. Mature yet still with fruit, meat, blood orange, game. A beautiful mix of meat- savory, fruit, mineral, and herbs. Effortless and drinking perfectly. 95
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11/28/2014 - William Kelley Likes this wine: 95 Points
The 1988 Chave (Yapp bottling) is still extremely youthful, and probably a decade away from really showing all its potential. The nose is a fascinating melange of creamy raspberries, cassis, woodsmoke and coco. On the palate, the wine is dense without being fat; lean but not mean, as one taster commented. There is a great deal of intense, concentrated flavor here, and very bright acids, but everything is tightly-knit right now. When this wine pops it should be very ethereal and a magical vintage of Chave Hermitage.
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11/20/2014 - coremill wrote: 86 Points
Chave Dinner (Le Perigord): A little bit tinny/metallic, fully mature with peppery dried red fruit, mostly resolved, savory, a bit tart on the finish. This bottle is starting to dry out and is past prime.
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11/11/2014 - BradE wrote:
A nice vintage that usually delivers, but this bottle was more subtle and understated.
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10/12/2014 - jgh123 wrote:
11/2012: How beautiful. Lovely, mature, tobacco, smoked meat; lingering. Almost peaty. Drink now and for the next few years.
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8/21/2014 - BradE wrote:
This continues to be an under-rated vintage of Chave. Very, very good, and a wine to love.
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6/1/2014 - reichken wrote: 89 Points
Bottle a bit funky and not in a good funky way
Shame
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4/18/2014 - MC wrote:
This is a very nice Chave that shows its age in color, has a very nice nose of leather and earth, and has good fruit and a nice finish, although not much supporting it right now. Overall I think it is probably just a bit past its peak, but enjoyable with food and would be drinking up. A-
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12/26/2013 - Comte Flaneur wrote: 93 Points
Red robe, garnet colour, lively and expressive on the nose with red fruits, peppers, peat, bonfire and gamey meaty notes. On the palate beefy/bovril notes come to the fore and it is as lean as a Cheetah, without being thin. This medium bodied wine lacks the density, mid-plate stuffing and finish of the likes of the 1990 but it is nevertheless an enthralling and riveting wine. I don't think there is any point in holding out for better to come; but neither is there any hurry to drink up.
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12/23/2013 - d'Artagnan wrote:
Lunch C.A. de la Paulée: Lunch chez Vincent
Une bouche acide avec une belle attaque, il a de l'âge, parait un peu oxydatif et semble un peu mince en fruit.
Au dévoilement, il nous parait évident que cette bouteille est imparfaite, qu'elle sans doute eu chaud.
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12/19/2013 - fclarity wrote: 93 Points
Tasted blind, this wine had a deep red center with light red/orange rims. The medium+ intensity nose of black cherry, orange, soil, and Provencal herbs took a while to develop.
In the mouth, this wine was medium bodied with impressive balance , richness and length. This still appears to need at least 5 more years in the cellar. Thus, it may pick up a point , or even two, with time.
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10/29/2013 - godx wrote: 92 Points
Northern Rhone Dinner Part 2 - Hermitage (Vancouver, BC): This had such a nice nose. smoked meat, black tea, black olive tapenade with smoky and earthy notes. Still has great depth and structure but it's drinking perfectly right now. Shows so much freshness (great acidity) and focus. Really good stuff. Drink or hold another decade. Excellent.
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9/3/2013 - mikeaukenbals Likes this wine: 95 Points
Loved this wine. Drinking perfectly now. Huge nose with interesting complexity and the right amount of barnyard.
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8/21/2013 - reichken wrote: 93 Points
Lightening around edges, moving towards a more smokey meaty flavor, hanging on to a little dark fruits but moving more secondary. Med long finish and a nice dry wine.i always like the 88's
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6/25/2013 - JJB88 wrote:
Blood, smoky tapenade, red fruits. On the palate fruit and minerals intermingle with a savoury meaty character. The moderate acid and fine tannins create a firm but refined finish. Balanced. Very Chave. Great wine.
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3/23/2013 - bpj87 Likes this wine: 97 Points
Los Angeles "Bucket List" Offline (Los Angeles, California): Decanted and followed for three hours. Archetypal Northern Rhone nose of game, olive, and blood. Beautiful balance on the savory palate of red and dark fruits, meatiness, minerality, moderate acidity, and light tannins. Refined and polished – everything integrates into a truly spectacular whole.
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1/8/2013 - BradKNYC wrote:
Chave night with the Gelbs. (Christine & Marty's.): Always one of my favorite Chaves, this one is showing beautifully, but with a bit less fruit than usual with the smoked meat character more prominent leading me to believe the wine might be heading to the back side of peak. Normally there's quite a bit of black fruit to the wine, but in this bottle it's somewhat in the background. Silky upfront with wonderful harmony and softness across the palate, the smokiness of the wine is really quite soothing. Nice and meaty with the usual herb, bacon and lavender character and crisp acidity on the finish. My WOTN. A/A-.
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10/2/2012 - Zweder wrote: 92 Points
Tobacco and chocolate in the beautiful and mature bouquet with also bacon and spices. On the palate a lot of acidity, minerals, green herbs and still a bit edgy tannin. Already a beautiful wine, but it will improve with more ageing. Not a bad idea to try this again around 2020. 92++
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6/16/2012 - markjanes wrote: 94 Points
Epic Boys Trip; 6/13/2012-6/17/2012 (Napa and San Francisco): Compared to the 94 Chave side by side, same red rim, moderate depth of color with a bit more sediment. Aromatically certainly in the mature phase of Chave-ness... iodine and exotic spices speak loudly over very pretty and floral red fruits, tar, slight horse saddle aromas. On the palate the wine has high acidity, a more firm midpalate that has Syrah flesh, more tannins than the 94 that are of similar ripeness and not as fully integrated yet. Great balance, excellent length, very good intensity, fantastic complexity. Wine has great finesse, flawless texture, excellent expression of place and Chave-ness. I think this is ultimately a better wine (though I guess at this point it is about better "bottles" more than better "wines") and will have a longer period of mature drinking pleasure... and boy is it a pleasure. It seems to me that the 88 is slightly underrated on CT compared to other Chave Hermitage vintages???
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3/19/2012 - Kriz wrote:
J.L. Chave tasting with Gerard & Jean-Louis Chave and Louis & Xavier Kat (Okhuysen) (De Zwethheul (**) Schipluiden, Holland): No score. There is difference between the separate bottles on the tables. The one we had was a little over the top. Signs of wilted flowers and 'tiredness'. That's the risk of older wines. They can be beautiful but what a shame if you missed it's peak.
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3/15/2012 - aagrawal wrote: 92 Points
Davids & Rhone Dinner (San Francisco): Sweet nose; lovely balanced palate with notably juicy red fruits, integrated tannins, lovely and ready to drink. 92
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3/5/2012 - Dokken wrote: 94 Points
Medium- garnet with a tawny rim. Evolved and lifted nose combining earthy, meaty and spicy aromas with still vibrant fruit and barely detectable oak. Silky and delicious on palate with crisp acidity and medium still firm tannins that balance 13% alcohol and elegant body. Leathery, masculine finish. Drinking very well now, has still life ahead.
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12/19/2011 - Seth Rosenberg wrote: 93 Points
Acker BYO 2011 (Tribeca Grill): Lots of barnyard in the nose, meaty and smokey, game, salt. Very meaty and earthy on the palate, pure and elegant. Lots of minerals. Game. Really precise - lots of meat and minerals, bitter on the finish. Nose - 4/6, Palate - 5/6, Finish - 6/6, Je Ne Sais Quoi - 1.5/2 = 16.5/20.
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12/4/2011 - winoma wrote: 92 Points
Lovely bottle in a perfect drinking moment. Tannins have fallen away and the wine is eloquent, balanced with a lovely finish.
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10/30/2011 - reichken wrote: 93 Points
Sunday Lunch @ The Oak- light purple color, smokey bacon nose, medium weight, nice layers of fruit and earth. great length ad mouth prescense
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9/19/2011 - Jeff Leve wrote: 93 Points
Dark colored wine with a smoky, spicy quality to the ripe black fruit aromas. This reminds me of how the 83 tasted a few years ago.
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9/12/2011 - BradKNYC wrote:
Good wines and fun times as Nicos returns to New York. (La Fonda Del Sol): Always one of my favorite Chaves and this bottle is showing beautifully. The aromatics are breathtaking and more red fruit dominated than usual. Red plums, violets, spice, black fruit and smoked meat lead make it hard to pull one's nose out of the glass. On the palate the wine is fully integrated and harmonious as it has been for a number of years now and is just a joy to drink. More black fruited on the palate than on the nose with similar flavors as aromas. In a wonderful place and my red wine of the night. A.
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7/7/2011 - reichken wrote: 93 Points
dark red/ruby. earthy smell with a touch of spice. big lush cherry and dark smokey fruits.long finish, still getting better
a very good wine/chave
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6/8/2011 - reichken wrote: flawed
shame!!!! corked
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5/16/2011 - reichken wrote: 92 Points
looked like the color of a good burgundy in the glass. nose of smokey leather and earth. in the mouth a nice mix of dark red fruits, med high acidity and smokey meats. med long finish, this wine is in a very nice place right now
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5/14/2011 - reichken wrote: 93 Points
lightening ruby color. nose of peppery cherries with a bit of dirt or leather mixed in. med weight in the mouth with still some fresh dark red fruit there, nice mix of primary and secondary flavors. med long. nice chave
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1/22/2011 - dgerst wrote: 92 Points
This was popped and poured; in retrospect I think it needed a couple of hours in the decanter. Bright rub red. Nose of asian spices, rhubarb, strawberry. Very acidic on the entry, but with a light feathery texture that made me think red burgundy. Vigorous finish, with a strong sense of rhubarb pie. There was not the level of complexity that I love about Chave, but it was a great wine nonetheless with a good future. I think it may have suffered by being surrounded by so many other powerful reds we consumed, along with not enough breathing time.
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12/6/2010 - jeff nowak wrote: flawed
corked.
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12/6/2010 - kstoddard wrote: flawed
G6 (Kevin): Corked
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10/22/2010 - SimonG wrote:
Peddling for Pebbles 2 (The Ledbury): Ruby to full garnet. Quite a full, ripe, sweetly Chave-like nose. Quite light and clipped on the mid palate after a very rounded and sweet-fruited attack. Tannins quite dry on the medium to long finish. Needs another five years plus. Not a top Chave but a good one. ***(*1/2)
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9/14/2010 - Rupert wrote: 94 Points
Hermitage dinner - Jaboulet La Chapelle and JL Chave (The Ledbury, London): Another edgy entry, light, savoury, earth and smoke, and searing acidity, but it works - very exciting
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8/11/2010 - Jeff Leve wrote: 94 Points
This potent perfume greets you with aromatics of baked cherries, fresh leaves, truffles, spice, iron, earth and black pepper. Big, juicy and powerful, this mouth filling wine ends with sweet and sour cherry and strawberry filled finish. While drinking well now, a few more years will soften the wine and add complexity.
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7/21/2010 - dream wrote: 93 Points
Double-decanted for 4 hours before consumption. The color of a 5-year old wine. Interesting nose of roasted meats and animal fur. A fine bottle of this wine but it drank stubbornly young. Excellent black fruit flavors with complex "sauvage" notes. Big-boned with firm acidity and a long-complex finish acompanied by rustic tannins. Needs more time, I think to reveal all its glory but, alas, it's my last bottle. On to the '89 and '90 then.
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5/14/2010 - Cole wrote: 92 Points
Green nuts, mouse whiskers (it's a thing- i.e., a bit "bretty"), and sour red fruit on the nose. A bit grey and dusty on the finish (no decant, no breathing), and lush red, green, and brown fruit on the palate. Would probably have been a 93 or 94 had proper service been insisted upon.
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4/14/2010 - BradE wrote:
Great performance. Straight out of the bottle, this rocked.
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4/13/2010 - Dave Dalluge wrote: 94 Points
'88 Northern Rhones at Siggy's: When first poured this was the equal of the other three Northern Rhones. In time it retreated a bit, while the Guigals gained. The nose delivers big, hearty aromas of red fruit, pepper and earthy. The taste is dominated by more red fruit with good minerality. Great presence on the palate and a supple, elegant texture. Perfectly balanced. Great length on the finish. A worthy adversary that just came up a bit short tonight.
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3/16/2010 - JeffGMorris wrote: 95 Points
Dinner with Steve at Buku, Raleigh, NC. Wow, was this wine showing well tonight! Ruby in the glass, the fruit here was concentrated, deep and very pure. Medium plus in body, this had a velvety and silky texture to it. The balance of fruit and acid is truly harmonious in this great wine of distinction and class. Classic Chave nose loaded with black cherries, dark chocolate, violets and other floral scents and a meaty, smoky, hot stone character to it. Complex and refined and well resolved/ready to drink today but this will continue to drink well for many years to come. 50+14+13+9+9 = 95
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1/24/2010 - gregg g wrote:
Chave at Palate (Glendale, CA.): This was a very good bottle just not great. Bretty, herbal and green aromatics. Some balance issues with is wine with the acidity poking out which comprimised the length. Compared to its counterparts, the weakest of the reds.
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12/20/2009 - PMJ wrote: 93 Points
Really aromatic of beef blood, asian spices, and red and black fruit. Wine is fully resolved and has an almost ethereal texture. Flavors on the palate took a while to come around but built over time in the glass. The burgundian nature of this wine made it a really good pairing with the rabbit stew I had. 93 points.
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10/4/2009 - theusualsuspect wrote: 92 Points
The best of many bottles of this wine I've had. Nothing much on the nose - a certain rubber almost petrol quality, but on the palate very expressive with a sort of refined earthiness and really excellemt length. Much prefer the 89 and 90.
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9/13/2009 - loverboy wrote: 92 Points
Very Burgundian in style, Aged color with high acidity ( like Burgs again ). Clean floral nose with mixed red fruits, got better with its 2nd part of the bottle. The tannin picked up some sweet which went along very well with its acidity. Very fine wine overall.
This wine makes me wanna find some other Chave Hermitage to try.
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9/12/2009 - DAN BAILEY wrote:
Just effortless class. Fully resolved, silky palate with perfect balance/precision. WOTN for me although the 98 Rostaing Cote Blonde may be better in the future.
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7/16/2009 - Keith Levenberg wrote: 96 Points
Great stuff. Initially seemed shy next to the '98 Jamet, which was more emphatic and outgoing, but once I started to focus on this it distinguishes itself, mostly in texture. The mouthfeel has that plushness to it that almost feels more like inhaling a cloud of wine than drinking a liquid. No rough edges whatsoever. The flavors, though, are still weighty and meaty. Chave never disappoints.
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7/15/2009 - BradKNYC wrote:
Belated Peking Duck House notes. Mostly Rhone, some Burgs, Champagne & California. (Peking Duck House- Midtown): Whaddya know? I completely forgot I had this when I wrote my note about a bottle Chris Kravitz brought to my place a week ago. Funny enough, the notes are almost identical. The wine is really in a beautiful place right now. Shows a ton of class and elegance and has great length and persistence across the palate. This bottle shows a little more peppery spiciness than the one over Labor Day and a little bit more of a mélange between black and red fruit, but the meat, herb, lavender and iron are still there. Gorgeous wine. A.
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7/11/2009 - jjclips2 wrote: 90 Points
Kruger's 75th (Corsair): I didn't find this to have as much going on as the '87. Quite a bit more funky earth going on, especially on the nose. The fruit is definitely there, just overshadowed by some funky brett. Asian spices, also very exotic, black plums, and leather. The palate is quite out of whack with high acid, firm tannin, and lack of fruit.
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6/23/2009 - JohnB wrote:
Display’s nice vibrant garnet color, no bricking evident, clear at the rim. The nose was more muted than other ‘88’s have had providing some nice red fruits, leather, a bit of game and forest floor. In the mouth a bit restrained & dusty but the tannins seem to be finally in the background. Although there was certainly nice balance and elegance if I had a nit to pick it would be that the acid stuck out a bit. Certainly a nice bottle of wine but, I think that I still prefer the La Chapelle in 1988.
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2/11/2009 - muchomaas wrote: 93 Points
Fantastic nose of game, horsehide, tobacco, ripe fruit. A definite wine of the night at Charlie Trotter's Las Vegas (next to 2005 SQN Atlantis and a number of others).
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9/13/2008 - antiwood wrote:
This wine slipped through the cracks for the group and wasn't much discussed. Not the power/freshness of the younger wines and less secondary complexity than the older. Rather in-between. But I liked this a lot. Chave balance and elegance throughout. On the darker side and carried more by structure than fruit. Drinking well now and should evolve nicely for a few more years.
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2/17/2008 - JeffGMorris wrote: 88 Points
Rednecks & Rhones Chave-a-thon. Light ruby in color with a little bricking around the edges. A little stink at first which mostly blew off but some remained throughout. Very minerally. Drying tannins on the finish. Good but not the best showing for this vintage. 50+11+12+7.5+7.5 = 88
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1/27/2008 - KPB wrote: 95 Points
With braised lamb shanks. Wow, what a great pairing! The wine is brick colored with noticable amber on the rim. Rich, mature nose is gamey with all sorts of complex notes; the underlying fruit aromas run to griotte cherries and pomegranate, but I get leather, beeswax, mushrooms, garrigue. Burgundian mouthfeel with rich extraction but substantial acidity and a very long, complex, mineral-laden finish. A really fantastic bottle nearing its peak (with a very long future)
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1/13/2008 - IAMVLAD wrote: 90 Points
atlanta blue nose group hermitage tasting which included 88,89,90 chave, 88, 89, 90 jaboulet la chappelle, 89, 90, 91 sorrell le greal and 89, 90, 91 chapoutier pavillon. this wine didn't compare to some from the 89 and 90 vintage but was in the top third of the night. plenty of restrained fruit and typical of the vintage.restrained variety
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12/22/2007 - JeffGMorris wrote: flawed
Dinner at Provence with Steve & Barb. Corked.
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5/12/2007 - Brad L wrote:
The 88 Chave was just beautiful and certainly overshadowed the Thalabert (though not completely). It was very Hermitage and very 88, with a solid frame, a softened menthol core, very delineated complex nose, and all sorts of things going on. This wine I think qualitatively overshadowed everything else but not overwhelmingly so. But it had a weight and complexity that put it solidly in another class. This bottle was courtesy of Jeff Fisher and was highly appreciated.
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4/27/2007 - trankin wrote: 91 Points
Very Special Evening at Picholine (Picholine Wine Room, NYC): Tight nose of tobacco and dark red fruit. Tender and delicate on the palate. Thin and acidic in the way I love it to be. Beautiful, gentle red fruits. Ripe strawberries. Very nice wine.
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4/21/2007 - The Klipper wrote: 92 Points
Northern Rhone Tasting (Brad's house, Seattle): Tarry nebbiolo-esque nose. Flavors much more in line with mature Syrah. Like the Jaboulet Crozes Thalabert 88, quite high in acid, but with more buffering tannins and dry extract. Bloomed gloriuosly over 45 minutes to reveal peanut shell, but just a touch of bacon.
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2/12/2007 - collin wrote:
I picked this up for a song at a somewhat local restaurant. Given my inexperience with Hermitage and the price I paid (one usually gets what one pays for), take the following with a grain of salt. On first opening, the color was surprisingly young for a 19 yr old wine, showing just a hint of orange at the rim. The nose was mostly brett. After an hour or so in the bottle, the nose gained complexity adding iron and meat. A bit later, red fruits came out. Then some herbs. The nose was always fairly subtle, perhaps overwhelmed by the brett. The palate also improved with time, adding tannins and acid as the night wore on, seemingly fighting the wine's intrinsic balance, but losing. The finish ended up being the best part of the wine, very long and complex. In the end, with an hour or so in a decanter, I think this would be about as good a wine as one could want at the table. With the balance, acid, tannins, and spectacular finish, it'll pair very well with, say, lamb chops. But it doesn't necessarily have the complexity to reward extended time with just the wine. For the $250-300 this apparently goes for, I think one could do a lot better. For the price I paid, I'm satisfied.
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2/1/2007 - JeffGMorris wrote: 91 Points
Dinner at Schwa. Dark ruby in color, this medium bodied wine showed the classic minerality of Chave along with sour cherries. Nice acidity. A really nice wine but not as deep or intense as recent examples of the '89, '90, '99 or '03. Medium plus length on the finish. When the thought of those stronger vintages is released from the mind and this wine is ranked on its' own merits, it is really quite enjoyable. 50+12+12+8.5+8.5 = 91
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11/11/2006 - Eric wrote: 92 Points
Mmm, a gorgeous, blasting nose of smoked meat and tar leaps from the glass. The palate is tart, poised and bright with red cherry, gaining meatiness and heft. Just gorgeous, classic Hermitage.
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10/17/2006 - dream wrote: 94 Points
This wine is still youthful but possesses the most enticing nose of roasted meats and black minerals. After breathing for 90 minutes, it begins to show fabulous complex flavors of charred beef, aged cassis and....yes, a Guinness. Has a texture reminiscent of a red burgundy but finishes with a rustic coarseness and an incredibly satsdfying black fruit intensity. I'm beginning to understand Chave's Hermitage. It's more of an intellectual experience than a blockbuster wine with a unique flavor that tastes like the middle ages. OK, well, I'm trashed.
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10/7/2006 - Jeff Leve wrote: 94 Points
Deep colored with a perfume reminiscent of spicy, black fruit and cherries blended with minerals. The powerful, palate presence mixed black and red fruits with a great cherry core. Full bodied and close to full maturity, the wine continued improving in the glass over a few hours.
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3/1/2006 - winefool wrote: 93 Points
Older Rhones - Group #4, My #6 - Medium red with a little lightening. Full aroma of slightly stewey acidic red fruit and cedar notes. Ripe spicy black fruit. Still almost a little tight? 3/06
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2/11/2006 - JeffGMorris wrote: 93 Points
Chave dinner (Raleigh, NC): Dark garnet in color, this was almost as dark as the youngest wine of the flight, the '94. Full bodied with deep and rich fruit and a glyceral mouthfeel. Long finish. A great bottle, almost the equal of the '90 that was sitting next to it. 50+13+13+8.5+8.5 = 93
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8/12/2005 - Eric wrote: flawed
Wrap-up dinner at Butterfield9 (Washington DC): Corked!
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2/12/2005 - Eric wrote:
Rhônes and dinner with Robert Parker (Baltimore, MD): This was the brettiest wine of the flight, and I loved it. Structured and a bit angular, it was still delicious.
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2/1/2005 - Eric wrote: 94 Points
San Francisco offline at Bizou (San Francisco, CA): This was probably the best nose of the night except for perhaps the Beaucastel. Cracked black pepper, roasted meat and lots of gently wafting sweet, black fruit. At first the palate seemed less forgiving, very acidic and somewhat tough and chewy. However, with time and food this relaxed quite a bit and became more approachable. Massive notes of bacon eventually came out on the nose and palate.
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12/15/2004 - jfloren wrote: flawed
Corked. There was powerful, delicious fruit behind the taint, and this bottle seemed more youthful and with a stronger palate than the example (great bouquet, fading palate) I had at the Bizou offline in Jan. 2005.
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11/28/2004 - cassetta wrote: 94 Points
Decanted and drank over the following 6 hours. When the wine was first opened it was tight. The only thing that was obvious was that this was a young wine with mouth searing tannins. After an hour it started to give and show itself. The wine started to sing after 3 hours in the decanter. Up until the last glass, SIX hours later, the wine continued to open and put on weight. Dense dark ruby in color. Classic nose of earth, wild game and a hint of cassis. After four hours the cassis really comes through and coats the palate. Big wine with lots of tannins but given enough air, the lush fruit balances them out. Will continue to improve with at least another 5-10 in years in the cellar and may merit a higher score.
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10/29/2004 - rjonwine@gmail.com wrote: 93 Points
Chave Hermitage Tasting 2000-1990: Lovely roasted fruit nose and palate with good acidity; medium finish
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8/1/2004 - Jeff Leve wrote: 92 Points
Deep ruby color. Red and black fruits, sandalwood, earth and cassis on the nose. Very lush texture and already close to mature.
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5/8/1993 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 93 Points
Chave/Clape tasting (Okhuysen, Haarlem, Netherlands): Balanced and harmonious, elegant, fresh, structured, is starting to open up, lovely fruit.
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2/5/1992 - bestdamncab Likes this wine: 90 Points
2 TASTINGS TODAY- RHONES & WANNABES + CABERNET SAUVIGNONS (Prima, Walnut Creek, Ca.): Nice, stinky nose, layers of flavors, meaty, chewy, fruity taste. excellent tasting, seems lighter body as evening went on.
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