Paul Jaboulet Aine
La Chapelle
Hermitage
2015

The producer

Vying with Delas as the oldest house producing Hermitage, Jaboulet developed fame for Hermitage led by the cuvee La Chapelle – a wine of legend for many, especially anybody lucky enough to have experienced the amazing 1961 vintage. Other vintages of almost equal fame are the 1991, 1990 and 1978.

Founded in the Tain l’Hermitage town, by Antoine Jaboulet, in 1834, over the years the domaine has expanded from Hermitage to today also include vineyards in the Crozes-Hermitage appellation, including Domaine de Thalabert. 

After the ever-charming Gerard Jaboulet passed away in 1997 the company lost its way somewhat until being sold to Jean-Jacques (who made his fortune in real estate and experience of running estates in Champagne, Burgundy, and Bordeaux) in 2005. The first change was in the vineyards with the slow but deliberate conversion to organic then biodynamic principles. La Chapelle is now back in wondrous form and is once again a wine power and beauty, and a unique experience for any wine lover.

The wine

La Chapelle is named after the small chapel of St Christophe at the top of the Hermitage hill. Fruit is sourced from Bessards, Le Meal, Greffieux and Rocoules, and is 100% destemmed, following which each parcel is fermented separately before the final blending and maturation. Full-bodied, generous, highly complex and balanced, with layers of earthy black fruit flavours, the best vintages of La Chapelle can age for 30-40 years and beyond.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.