Matt Walls: Tasting Jaboulet La Chapelle from 1991 to 2019

The tiny chapel of St Christopher, perched on top of the mighty hill of Hermitage, is illuminated by spotlights at night. Surrounded by darkness, when you glimpse it from the town of Tain below, it appears to hover in the night sky like a celestial body. This is the shrine that gives Jaboulet’s historic wine, La Chapelle, its name.

It’s no exaggeration to say that this wine can represent one of the most captivating and complex wines of the Rhône Valley. The 1961 La Chapelle has occasionally been described as one of the greatest wines ever made, and is now one of the most expensive.

At London’s Hedonism Wines, it sells for £11,800 ($15,830) – and that’s for a half bottle.

Scroll down for Matt Walls’ Jaboulet La Chapelle tasting notes and scores

The 1978 and 1990 are certainly among the greatest wines I have ever experienced, and both are still going strong.

But, this wine is maddeningly unreliable. Some vintages are otherworldly, others mundane.

I visited Caroline Frey at Paul Jaboulet Aîné to taste a vertical of recent vintages to see how the wine has fared since her family bought the négociant house in 2006.

The history

Paul Jaboulet Aîné was established in 1834, and saw six generations of Jaboulets come and go until the unexpected death of Gérard Jaboulet in 1997. The firm struggled after this and eventually the family sold the business to the Frey family, owners of Château La Lagune, a third growth estate in Bordeaux.

The estate produces around one million bottles per year from purchased wines and grapes, but they also own 110 hectares of land in the northern Rhône from which they produce around 200,000 bottles.

‘When I arrived, people thought the business was just a négociant. I prefer to think of ourselves as a domaine with a négoce side,’ says Frey.

Change at the domaine

On her arrival, Caroline took on the role of winemaker and immediately sought to improve the health of the vineyards. Working the soils mechanically rather than chemically was a challenge, particularly on the slopes, and it took time for the vines to adapt.

By 2016 she achieved her goal of organic certification, and they have been incorporating some biodynamic principles (though are not yet certified) since 2018.

The Freys made a controversial decision to replant two large sections of old vines from their Hermitage vineyards – one from lieu-dit Le Méal, another from lieu-dit Les Murets.

They have also introduced a second wine from their Hermitage vineyards, La Petite Chapelle, which was renamed La Maison Bleue from the 2015 vintage.

Two white wines complete their Hermitage range, one also called La Chapelle, the other named after the original hermit who gave the hill its name, Le Chevalier de Stérimberg.

The making of La Chappelle

The name ‘La Chapelle’ brings to mind the chapel itself and its surrounding vineyards, but this is not a single vineyard wine; La Chapelle is just the name of the cuvée.

The wine itself is a blend of several lieux-dits: Le Bessards, Le Méal, Les Greffieux, Les Rocoules and Les Murets.

Jaboulet has one of the largest holdings in this 140 hectare appellation, owning 22.4ha of Syrah and 4ha of Marsanne and Roussanne. Vines have an average age of 80 years, and some are over 100 years old.

The wine today is all destemmed, some tanks fermenting with natural yeasts, others using selected strains. Maceration lasts for four weeks at around 30ºC, with extraction by pumping over and punching down.

Maturation takes place in French oak barriques and demi-muids (15% new, the others recent) for around 15 months. Caroline is also experimenting with ageing a proportion in concrete eggs. Fining and filtration takes place if necessary.

Approximately 2,800 cases of La Chapelle are produced in a good year, and it’s produced in all but the worst vintages – 1993 and 2008 being the only recent vintages not to be bottled.

The vertical tasting

During my visit, we tasted the 2009 and 2010 vintages; then from 2015 to 2019 inclusive. We finished with the 1991, made by the previous owners.

Despite the new ownership and the renewed attention to the health of the soils, this cuvée remains quixotic and unreliable. Some vintages were superb, others lacklustre.

Today’s La Chapelle is a solid, broad shouldered style of Hermitage, potent, with fruit-saturated muscular tannins. Extraction and ripeness can feel a little pushed in certain vintages, but the use of oak is not excessive.

There’s no doubting their ageability, but some of the vintages I tasted, such as the 2018, lacked elegance.

The 1989, 1990 and 1991 vintages represented a run of superlative La Chapelles, but since then this cuvée has never quite reached such stratospheric heights of quality.

The 2016, however, was a joy; perfectly balanced, fresh and aromatic but no lack of depth or intensity. A tantalising glimpse of the La Chapelles of yesteryear, and of just how good this mercurial wine can be.

Matt Walls’ Jaboulet La Chapelle tasting notes and scores

More articles by Matt Walls:

Matt Walls’ top 10 Rhône wines of 2020

Tasting Domaine les Cailloux’s Cuvée Centenaire from 1989-2016

Tasting Domaine Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Ampodium 2008-2012