Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Chave's 2018 Hermitage Blanc, now that it's been blended and bottled for over a year, smashed my already lofty expectations. Showing a wonderfully delicate and intricate nose of white flowers, toasted grain and white peach, it's also impeccably balanced. Full-bodied, rich and concentrated, it nevertheless comes across as almost weightless but with amazing presence and length on the palate. If you're fortunate enough to latch onto multiple bottles, open one now to experience this legend as a young wine, then try to hide the others deep in the cellar. Best After 2022
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James Suckling
A spectacularly textured white, it’s oily but so focused and precise with vibrancy on the center palate. It has plenty of baked lemons, wild herbs, verbena and quince peel. It’s medium-bodied with so much intensity on the palate. It’s driven with so much tension. Very silky texture with a constant kick of spices. There is a chewiness to the long, vivid finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
I was able to taste the 2018 Hermitage Blanc from multiple barrels and tank, and I continue to think Jean-Louis fashions one of the greatest whites on planet earth. Gorgeous white flowers, honeysuckle, ripe quince, and toasted almond notes dominate the bouquet, and it has that rare mix of richness and opulence paired with incredible purity, freshness, and focus. It has a wealth of material yet also shows the vintage’s more rounded, sexy style. Plan on drinking bottles on release and over the following 2-4 years or hold off for a decade. It’s certainly in the same ballpark as the 2017.
Range: 96-98 -
Decanter
Rich and silky, but showing no heaviness, with a touch of lemon verbena on the nose. The alcohol is high yet not unbalanced, with an inner mineral freshness leading to a rich, long and generous butterscotch finish. A big vintage for Chave's white Hermitage, though not outrageously opulent.
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Wine Spectator
Beguiling, thanks to a creamy, caressing mouthfeel that belies the definition and range that lies within. Showcases mirabelle plum, white peach, Cavaillon melon, heather, salted butter, apricot and bitter almond notes that all weave together, with flashes of jasmine, brioche and macadamia nut. The long finish sails through effortlessly, despite its obvious weight and depth. A luxurious wine. Marsanne and Roussanne.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
One of the smallest and most important Syrah regions of northern Rhone, Hermitage is practically one single south-facing slope of crushed granite, thinly covered with varied, yet well-charted soil types. Many climats (well identified parcels) exist within Hermitage and while some smaller producers make single climat Syrahs, some larger ones blend to make one balanced expression of the appellation.
Though the AC regulations allow the addition of up to 15% white grapes to a red Hermitage, in practice it is usually made from Syrah alone. Winemaking is pretty traditional—or you might say historic—with hot fermentations and aging in older barrels of various sizes. The best wines, characterized by deep, dense and sexy flavors of black fruit, cocoa, licorice and tobacco, have massive textures and a solid 10-20 years aging potential.
The region of Hermitage is totally enclosed; the only place it could go really is to literally fall down its own hill into the city of Tain or the Rhone River. Soil erosion is a problem and terraces exist alongside the hill in order to keep the earth in place. Crozes-Hermitage encloses the region entirely to its north and south.
While Hermitage seems synonymous with some of the best Syrah on the planet, actually about one third of the wine produced here comes from white grapes. The full, lush and robust Marsanne or the less common, but almost more charming, Roussanne create wonderful whites in which the best have great potential for aging, like the reds.