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Hermitage Rouge, J-L Chave 2020

RegionRhône
Subregion France > Rhône > Northern Rhône > Hermitage
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietySyrah

View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by J-L Chave

Label

Tasting Notes

Moving to the reds from bottle, both these 2020s have incredibly concentrated, pure, focused styles that remind me of 2010. The 2020 Hermitage is inky hued, with sensational notes of red, blue, and black fruit as well liquid rock, graphite, burning embers, saddle leather, and hints of candied orange zest. It's a massive, concentrated, powerful wine, yet it stays balanced, has a good sense of freshness, building tannins, and a great finish. As with most great vintages here, it's going to need a decade of bottle age to shed its baby fat and will be a classic Hermitage to enjoy over the following 30 years or so. 2034 - 2064

98+
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com, March 2024

Tasted out of tank, the 2020 Hermitage ranks with the legendary wines from this address. Reminding me of a slightly more elegant version of the 2010, it's a deep, inky hued effort revealing utterly classic Hermitage aromatics of darker cassis and blue fruits as well as a liquid rock-like sense of minerality. Young and primordial, it still has incredible purity and freshness in its aromatics. Full-bodied and powerful on the palate, this gorgeous wine is going to shine with just 4-6 years of bottle age yet age with the best of them. I would not be surprised to see this beauty have 40, 50, or even 60 years of life.

98/100
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com, December 2022

As always, I was able to taste the 2020 Hermitage from each lieu-dit, which is unquestionably one of the educational highlights for me every year. While not quite as exotic or sexy as the 2019, it has a level of class that only comes from Hermitage, and I don’t say that lightly. Just about off-the-chart purity was present in each sample, the tannin quality is perfect, the wine has a sense of elegance as well as incredible concentration, and it was just a joy to taste. Lovers of classic, age-worthy Hermitage should absolutely not miss this.

98/100
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com, February 2022
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.