1992 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage

The brilliant wine making of Gerard Chave, now assisted by his highly talented son, Jean-Louis, has turned out as successful 1992s and 1993s as any producer in the northern Rhone. The white Hermitage includes about 15% Roussanne, which is being fermented in new oak barrels to give the wine more definition and structure. This has always been one of the great white Hermitages made, and in top vintages it is capable of aging for 30+ years. It is a wine that takes on greater life and complexity when drunk with intensely flavored food. I recently had the 1988 Chave white Hermitage with a truffle soup made by the renowned Washington, DC chef, Jean-Louis Palladin, and the wine could have been a great Montrachet given how spectacular it tasted. I preferred the 1993 to the 1992 red Hermitage, which exhibits a leanness, combined with bitter tannin in an otherwise medium-bodied, attractive, ripe wine. It displays some dilution from the rains that plagued the 1992 vintage. Chave's 1992 is likely to be a short-distance runner by the standards of this estate, lasting for no more than a decade. Importers: Langdon Shiverick, Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861-6800 and Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel (510) 524-1524