Chave 1994 Hermitage (Rhône) – At one time I owned some of this, back in the days when it was (relatively) reasonably priced. I don’t know what happened to it, and I certainly drank it too early, because this is where you’d want it…perhaps even a touch past that point…with a grittier, tooth-baring edge to its columnar masculinity. (Sometimes, a masculine column is just a masculine column. Or Chave Hermitage. Same thing.) (11/11)
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Be still my heart
JL Chave 1999 Côtes-du-Rhône “Mon Coeur” (Rhône) – Just a smidge past fully mature, I’d say, with a lovely old wood, old smoke, old fruit, and old leather jacket aroma laden with a significantly autumnal reddish-brownness. The fruit has, as it so often does in older wines, rounded into a petite core of sweetness, but it retains a good deal of appeal. The wine eventually loses its battle against oxygen…an hour or so and the cracks are readily apparent…but it shows surprising quality while it lingers. I’d never have guessed it would last this long, as it seemed rather blocky and dull-witted in its youth. (12/08)