Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage La Chapelle 2015

A wine named after a chapel

Hermitage is a single hill on the east bank of the Rhone, made up of three slopes whose soils run from hard granite to sandy clay. Its vineyards cover about 134 to 137 hectares, depending on the source, and the hill has probably been planted since Roman times. Local lore holds that a knight returning from the Crusades retired to the hill as a hermit, planted vines and built a chapel, and that the appellation takes its name from his refuge.

That chapel, dedicated to Saint Christopher, still stands on the slope, and it gives La Chapelle its name. There is no vineyard parcel called La Chapelle. The name is a trademark, and the wine is a blend of Syrah from several of the hill's best sites: Bessards, Le Meal, Greffieux and Rocoules. One account says Jaboulet bought the chapel and the plot around it in 1919.

The house itself is far older. Antoine Jaboulet founded it in 1834, and it grew into both a merchant and a major grower, with one of the largest holdings on the hill. Sources disagree on its exact size there: one gives 19 hectares of Syrah and 5 of white grapes, another almost 22 hectares of Syrah, a third 25 hectares in all. Le Meal is the biggest piece, with Bessards next.

The shadow of 1961

La Chapelle's fame rests on one vintage. The 1961 was made under Louis Jaboulet, from yields of just 8 hectoliters per hectare after June rains and widespread coulure, the failure of grapes to set after flowering, cut the crop. About 10,000 bottles were made, released at 10 French francs a bottle. The grapes were trodden by foot, fermented with native yeasts in open wooden vats, probably with about half the stems, and aged mostly in vats, with a few barrels including some of chestnut.

Robert Parker called the 1961 one of the three or four greatest red wines he had ever tasted, and a British wine magazine's long-serving critic summed up its progress as 'huge in 1967, fruit-laden in 1983, magnificent in 1990.' The acclaim helped revive interest in Hermitage itself, whose vineyards had been neglected for much of the 20th century after a long 19th-century career as a blending wine used to strengthen weak Bordeaux. The 1978 and 1990 vintages later joined the 1961 in earning perfect scores.

Then the house stumbled. After 1990 quality slipped, a decline one writer ties to a diving accident suffered by the winemaker Jacques Jaboulet and the death of Gerard Jaboulet in 1997. Expansion added financial strain, and in 2006 the family sold the business to the Frey family, owners of Chateau La Lagune in Bordeaux and a large stake in a Champagne house.

Caroline Frey and the revival

The Freys put Caroline Frey, daughter of the buyer Jean-Jacques Frey, in charge of winemaking. She had given up professional show jumping at 21 to study oenology at Bordeaux's wine institute and took over as winemaker at La Lagune at 24. At Jaboulet she converted the vineyards to organic and biodynamic farming, and in 2015 the estate gained France's High Environmental Value certification.

Quality came back slowly. The 2003 was a partial rebirth, the 2009 and 2010 were hailed as the best of the Frey era, and the selection for La Chapelle became much stricter: one account says production fell from as many as 7,000 cases to about 2,000 a year. Another source gives a range of 30,000 to 80,000 bottles depending on the vintage, so figures for the wine's output vary widely. Under the Freys the grapes are fully destemmed and each parcel is fermented separately before blending, with the share of new French oak set vintage by vintage.

The family later moved further from the Jaboulet name. A company called Domaine de la Chapelle was registered on April 14, 2023, and from the 2021 vintage La Chapelle and its white partner, once called Chevalier de Sterimberg, are sold under the Domaine de la Chapelle label. A new winery for them, commissioned from the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, was completed in time for the 2026 vintage. In July 2025 Caroline Frey announced she was stepping back from the family's French estates to focus on their Swiss vineyards.

2015: a hot year that suited the hill

The summer was hot and dry, at times hotter than the heat-wave year of 2003. Cool nights helped the grapes keep their acidity, and rain in late August and early September arrived just in time to restart vines that had slowed under drought stress. Yields were normal, and nearly all of the northern Rhone was picked by mid- to late September.

Growers were jubilant. Jean-Louis Chave, Jaboulet's great rival on the hill, described a perfect spring followed by a perfect, drought-like summer, and another Rhone grower said his father considered 2015 the most exceptional vintage he had seen in 55 years.

The critics agreed about La Chapelle. Jeb Dunnuck gave it 100 points, likening it to the 1990 and calling it the finest wine from the estate in close to 30 years, with notes of blackcurrants, smoked herbs, beef blood and chocolate. Vinous scored it 98, the highest of the northern Rhone in its report, and called it a contender for wine of the vintage. Wine Advocate, at 97-100 from barrel and 98 in bottle, said it might surpass the 2009 and 2010 and predicted three to four decades of life. One American writer who scored it 100 asked whether it was the best since 1990 or perhaps 1978, and answered yes.

Identifying it, and what it costs

Bottles of the 2015 carry the Paul Jaboulet Aine name and the words Hermitage La Chapelle; vintages from 2021 on are labeled Domaine de la Chapelle instead. The wine is 100% Syrah at 14% alcohol.

On release the wine was far from the price of the 1961. In September 2018 a U.S. wine shop listed the 2015 at $319.95 a bottle and offered it for $236. The 1961, by contrast, now commands thousands: a British wine magazine put its average asking price at £9,180 a bottle.

Writers expect the 2015 to need patience. One guide suggests 15 to 20 years in the cellar for great vintages of La Chapelle, with the wine at its best between 20 and 60 years of age, and recommends several hours of decanting in its youth.

The numbers

Grape

100% Syrah

Parcels

Bessards, Le Meal, Greffieux, Rocoules

Jaboulet's Hermitage vineyards

Sources give 19 ha of Syrah plus 5 ha of white grapes, almost 22 ha of Syrah, or 25 ha in total

Production

About 2,000 cases a year by one account; 30,000 to 80,000 bottles by another

Alcohol

14% (merchant listing)

Jeb Dunnuck

100

Vinous

98

Wine Advocate

98 (97-100 from barrel)

James Suckling

97

Timeline

1. 1834

   Antoine Jaboulet founds the house in the northern Rhone.

2. 1919

   Jaboulet buys the Chapel of Saint Christopher and the land around it, by one account.

3. 1961

   About 10,000 bottles of the legendary La Chapelle 1961 are made, at 8 hl/ha.

4. 1976

   Louis Jaboulet, who oversaw the 1961, retires.

5. 1989

   Jaboulet begins making a second Hermitage, Le Pied de la Cote, alongside La Chapelle.

6. 1997

   Gerard Jaboulet dies, during a period of decline at the house.

7. 2006

   The Frey family buys Paul Jaboulet Aine; Caroline Frey takes charge of winemaking.

8. 2015

   The estate gains High Environmental Value certification; a hot, dry summer produces the 2015 vintage.

9. Apr 25, 2018

   An American critic tastes the Jaboulet 2015 range; La Chapelle later earns 100 points from him.

10. Sep 2018

    A U.S. wine shop offers the 2015 at $236 a bottle after Jeb Dunnuck's 100-point score.

11. Apr 14, 2023

    The company Domaine de la Chapelle is registered.

12. Sep 2023

    News breaks that La Chapelle will drop the Jaboulet name, starting with the 2021 vintage.

13. Jul 2025

    Caroline Frey announces she is stepping back from the family's French estates.

The world in 2015

• Jan 7, 2015

  Gunmen kill 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

• Apr 25, 2015

  A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Nepal.

• Jul 14, 2015

  NASA's New Horizons flies past Pluto, and Iran agrees to long-term limits on its nuclear program.

• Jul 20, 2015

  Cuba and the United States restore full diplomatic relations.

• Sep 14, 2015

  LIGO detects gravitational waves for the first time.

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, Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage La Chapelle 2015 is number 92 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 (97 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• There is no vineyard called La Chapelle; the name comes from a small chapel on the hill of Hermitage.
• The legendary 1961 was released at 10 French francs a bottle.
• Yields for the 1961 were just 8 hectoliters per hectare after poor fruit set cut the crop.
• In the 19th century, Hermitage was routinely used to strengthen weak Bordeaux.
• Caroline Frey was a competitive show jumper before she studied winemaking.
• From the 2021 vintage the wine no longer carries the Jaboulet name.