Yann Chave : Hermitage 2017

Unsurprisingly, at this early stage the oak here is easily perceived, but it's a balanced wine and the rich, concentrated fruits will harmonise in time. It's a thunderous Hermitage that makes a big statement, resonating long with a good sense of energy. It's spiced and lifted on the finish and has bold, ripe, textural tannins. This will be good.

Glass-staining ruby. Expansive aromas of fresh boysenberry, blackberry, incense and candied flowers reveal a hint of vanilla as the wine opens up. Juicy and well-concentrated, offering spice-tinged black and blue fruits, violet, licorice and spicecake notes that show excellent clarity. In a powerful yet graceful style, with supple tannins lending gentle grip to a long, floral-driven finish.

Bright and dense dark purple colour. Pure nose with crushed stone, violet, blackberry, cassis, tobacco and raw meat in fine layers. Lovely density and freshness on the palate with rich but rounded tannins, spicy with both garrigue and dry spices, dark fruit flavours of crushed blackberry and cassis, with a long and pure finish.

Chave's 2017 Hermitage showed beautifully, with a core of sweet blackberry and plum fruits as well as plenty of spice, crushed flowers, and mineral aromas and flavors. Rich, full-bodied, and balanced, drink this sexy Hermitage any time over the coming 10–15 years or more. This cuvée comes all from Chave’s 1.15-hectare holding in the Beaumes and Péléat lieux-dits, is destemmed, and was brought up entirely in demi-muids.

We applaud the aromatic purity of this wine. The style is refined, with nuanced oak. Fine breadth, charm, and a juicy, generous palate. Lovely length on the finish.

Complex bouquet with notes of blueberry, cocoa and pepper. On the palate, the wine is broad with good aromatic intensity. The tannins are silky, slightly suave, and in perfect harmony with the acidic structure. A truly beautiful wine that can already be enjoyed in its youth, yet has solid potential.

Delicate streaks of violet, wild mint and charred underbrush lend nuance to lustrous crème de cassis on the palate. It's intensely ripe but pure in fruit quality, lifted by a crystalline spine of minerality and very fine, lingering tannins. Lovely already but likely to improve through 2030 and hold for years further.

From just over a hectare in the lieux-dits of Les Beaumes and Péleat, Yann Chave's 2017 Hermitage is another successful wine. There's a slightly herbal element that stands out, bringing a pronounced currant note to the fruit, a mix of redcurrants and cassis. Medium to full-bodied, it's creamy, supple and long on the palate, with silky tannins marking the finish. Never the biggest, most powerful wine of the appellation, Yann Chave's Hermitage is still a fine, elegant example and of remarkably consistent quality in recent years.