Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 1996

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The Chave family has been established in Rhone winegrowing for several centuries, thanks to a local lord who granted them land at the end of the 15th century. Son of Gérard, Jean-Louis Chave today runs this legendary estate on the Hermitage hill... and continues to challenge himself. The latest: Clos Florentin, acquired in 2009 and which had been devastated by phylloxera. In the 1990s, Jean-Louis Chave also recovered plots on the Bachasson hillside, located in the Saint-Joseph appellation. The estate strives to express the best of its terroirs, without plot selection or “super vintages”. One exception: the Cathelin vintage, named after a late painter and friend of the winemaker... only produced in great vintages, its production does not exceed 2000 bottles. Jean-Louis Chave today seeks to perpetuate the style of the estate's wines, faithful to the ancestral practices that have forged its reputation: control of yields, no use of herbicides and artificial fertilizers, harvests as late as possible to reach perfect maturity, and very little interventionist vinification, letting the wine develop as it wishes. The harvest from each plot is vinified and aged separately, to allow it to express all its specificity, essential to ensure a beautiful complexity in the final blend.