2017 Paul Jaboulet Âiné La Chapelle Hermitage 750 ml

The name Paul Jaboulet Aîné is displayed high on the iconic Hermitage Hill, and the 99-point 2017 Hermitage La Chapelle shows why it’s at the very top. The wine’s an instant collector classic, showing deep purple-ruby concentration and a festival of Northern Rhône complexity: Blackberry and blueberry aromas are intertwined with smoked meat, licorice, cracked pepper, garrigue, gunflint, and savory wild herbs. 

Full-bodied, deep, and layered, this is the kind of collectible red that the famed Hermitage Hill is all about, and it’s hard to find a critic that isn’t wild about it: Jeb Dunnuck said it “knocks it out of the park with its massive, opulent personality.” Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate calls it “seriously collectible.” And James Suckling says “The icon is in dangerously seductive form.” 

He’s right: The 2017 La Chapelle’s super-fine tannins and finish of toasted oak are beautifully integrated now, but this beauty is made to shine in the cellar, and now is without a doubt the time to add it to your collection. That’s because this is the last of the vintage—until Jaboulet re-releases it in five-plus years, at a price befitting a 99-point library wine from one of the greatest terroirs (and producers) on planet Earth. Get ahead of the game by socking this iconic wine alongside your First Growth Bordeaux and cult Cabernets today.

Paul Jaboulet Aîné is in a new golden age, and La Chapelle deserves its position not only among the Guigal’s La-Las and other benchmark wines of the Northern Rhône, but the great wines of the world. It’s sourced from the most revered Syrah site on the planet, Hermitage Hill, which we ascended on our visit to the Rhône last year—first by car, before summiting on foot. From the Chapel of St. Christopher at the top of the hill, you can see far across the Rhône to the west, and down the steep vineyard slopes to the tiny town of Tain l’Hermitage below. 

Wine Spectator calls La Chapelle “one of the most recognizable names in the wine world,” and it’s sourced primarily from two of the most renowned parcels on Hermitage Hill, the lieux-dits of Les Bessards and Le Méal. The extremely granitic Les Bessards produces robust, tannic wine, which serves as the backbone of La Chapelle, while richness and fruit come from the looser alluvial soils of Le Méal. For decades, this has been the formula that has made La Chapelle one of the most collectible and age-worthy examples of Syrah in the world.

After our trip to Jaboulet’s iconic vineyards and sterling winemaking facilities, we tasted at Le Vineum, Jaboulet’s tiny wine bar in Tain l’Hermitage. The iconic reds from Hermitage Hill were spectacular, of course, but we couldn’t help thinking ahead… to pulling them out of the cellar in five, ten, twenty years’ time and reveling in the glory that only bottle age can draw out of Northern Rhône Syrah. We hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to reserve that experience for yourself.