Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 2016

From father to son since 1481

The Chave label carries a boast few wineries can match: 'Vignerons de Pere en Fils depuis 1481,' vine growers from father to son since 1481. According to the critic Jeff Leve, the family began in what is now the Saint-Joseph appellation and started buying land on the hill of Hermitage in 1865, a move tied to the phylloxera crisis that struck Europe's vineyards in the late 19th century.

The family still makes its wine at Mauves, on the opposite bank of the Rhone from Hermitage. Leve writes that the Chaves began bottling and selling their own wine in the late 1800s, when most growers sold to negociants, and that the oldest bottle in their cellar is from 1903.

Gerard and Jean-Louis

Gerard Chave took over the domaine around 1970 and, according to the importer's profile, consolidated about 15 hectares of top Hermitage sites, including Les Bessards, L'Hermite, Meal, Peleat and Les Rocoules. He vinified parcel by parcel, with hand harvesting, natural fermentation, little new oak and traditional cellar methods. Robert Parker once called father and son 'among the planet's greatest winemakers.'

Jean-Louis Chave joined his father in 1992 after studying enology at UC Davis in California; one importer adds undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut. At that time he replanted the family's original vineyards in Saint-Joseph, abandoned since phylloxera in the early 1900s. He runs the estate with his wife, Erin Cannon-Chave, and the family also makes a negociant range under the J.L. Chave Selection name.

The domaine adds a rare prestige red, Cuvee Cathelin, only in the best years. First made in 1990 and named for the painter Bernard Cathelin, a family friend, it is a different blend of the same fruit, mostly from Les Bessards, with more new oak, in quantities of about 200 cases.

One wine from many parcels

The Chaves have never released a single-vineyard Hermitage. Their red is assembled from parcels spread across the hill, and the backbone is always Les Bessards, steep granite where the family holds about two hectares. Leve counts seven lieux-dits in the red; the importer says the family has plots in nine of the hill's 18 climats in all. Many vines are 50 years old or more, and some in Bessards, Rocoules and Peleat are over 80.

Sources disagree on the size of the holdings. Leve gives 15 hectares in Hermitage, 10 of them Syrah for the reds; the importer gives 26 hectares in all, a figure that appears to include vineyards outside Hermitage. The family farms organically, by hand on the steep slopes, and replants from cuttings of its own old vines.

In the cellar each parcel is fermented and aged apart until blending. Leve writes that the reds are usually destemmed, with up to half the stems kept in very ripe years, and aged about 18 months, with new oak now closer to 10%. A winemaker note on one U.S. retailer's page says the Hermitage is generally fully destemmed, fermented in wooden tonneaux and steel tanks and aged 30 months in barriques; the two accounts differ on aging time. Leve puts production of the red at 2,000 to 2,500 cases a year.

2016: hail, then quality

Hail struck Hermitage in April 2016 and damaged part of the crop, according to JancisRobinson.com's vintage guide, which says yields fell but quality held, with alcohol generally a little lower than in 2015. Vinous described a double blow of spring hailstorms and delayed flowering that drove yields down, often dramatically, around Hermitage. The Wine Advocate's review of Chave's red says quantities were halved.

Jean-Louis Chave summed it up for Decanter: 'A good vintage - the problem was the yields.' Tasting the main components, Peleat, La Beaume, Les Bessards, L'Ermite and Le Meal, Decanter's reviewer found less of 2015's ripe generosity but real concentration, more elegance and tight tannins built for a long life, and judged that the 2016 might prove more rewarding in the end.

The other critics saw a cooler-seeming year with warm-year fruit. Jeb Dunnuck wrote that aromatically it seemed to come from a cooler vintage, yet had the sweet fruit and opulence of a warmer one, and advised 5 to 6 years of patience followed by 30 years or more of drinking. James Suckling: 'You feel the granite profoundly here.'

Scores and prices

Decanter scored the 2016 a perfect 100. James Suckling gave 98 in October 2018. Wine Spectator and Vinous gave 97, and the Wine Advocate 96+, calling it charming and approachable rather than the biggest wine the estate has made. Dunnuck's score appears as 97 on two U.S. retailers' pages and as 98 on a London merchant's list, for the same tasting note.

In October 2026 a Minneapolis store was asking $335 for a single 750 ml bottle, while other U.S. retailers listed it as out of stock or sold it only by the half-dozen. A London merchant offered six bottles in bond for 2,000 pounds and argued that Chave's Hermitage can be found for less than many Burgundy premiers crus, with only about 2,500 cases of the red made each year.

The numbers

Hermitage holdings

Sources conflict: 15 ha in Hermitage (10 ha Syrah), or 26 ha in all including other vineyards

Les Bessards

About 2 ha, the backbone of the red

Production

2,000-2,500 cases of red in a typical year; 2016 cut by hail

Blend

100% Syrah

Decanter

100

James Suckling

98 (October 2018)

Jeb Dunnuck

97 (shown as 98 by one merchant)

Wine Spectator

97

Vinous

97

Wine Advocate

96+

Timeline

1. 1481

   The Chave family's recorded start as vine growers, the date on its label.

2. 1865

   The family begins buying vineyard land on the hill of Hermitage.

3. 1903

   The oldest vintage still in the family cellar.

4. 1970

   Gerard Chave takes over the domaine.

5. 1990

   First vintage of the prestige Cuvee Cathelin.

6. 1991

   Chave shifts mostly to stainless steel, with three open wooden fermenters.

7. 1992

   Jean-Louis Chave joins his father after studying at UC Davis.

8. 2014

   A renovation and extension of the cellars is completed.

9. Apr 2016

   Hail damages vines on the hill of Hermitage.

10. Oct 2018

    James Suckling scores the 2016 98 points.

11. Oct 2026

    A Minneapolis store asks $335 for a single bottle.

The world in 2016

• Jan 28, 2016

  The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.

• Apr 16, 2016

  A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes northwestern Ecuador, killing 676 people.

• Jun 23, 2016

  The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union.

• Aug 24, 2016

  A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits central Italy, killing 299 people.

• Nov 2, 2016

  The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908.

• Dec 4, 2016

  Italy's constitutional referendum fails, and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigns.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 2016 is number 83 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (59 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Chave label reads 'Vignerons de Pere en Fils depuis 1481,' growers from father to son since 1481.
• The family makes its Hermitage on the other side of the Rhone, in the village of Mauves.
• The Chaves have never released a single-vineyard Hermitage; every bottle is a blend of parcels.
• Jean-Louis Chave replanted his family's original Saint-Joseph vineyards, abandoned for most of a century after phylloxera.
• Cuvee Cathelin is named after the painter Bernard Cathelin, a family friend.
• Hail in April 2016 roughly halved the domaine's crop, according to the Wine Advocate.