2016 Paul Jaboulet Aine La Chapelle Hermitage 750 ml

Every inch of Hermitage Hill is sacred. The incomparable Northern Rhône appellation, located solely on the hill, produces some of the world’s finest and most age-worthy wines—all from an area barely bigger than some First Growth Bordeaux estates. 

That’s why Paul Jaboulet Aîné’s La Chapelle, painstakingly grown on the most prized plots on the hill, sits among the great collector wines of the world. And since those bottles, which include the First Growths of Bordeaux and the top Grands Crus of Burgundy, routinely fetch four-digit prices, La Chapelle stands out as one of few true bargains that exist at the apex. 

Today we’ve got Jaboulet’s 97-98-point 2016 La Chapelle, and it’s an instant classic. Deep purple in the glass, it shows engrossing, intertwined aromatics of blackberry and wild plum accented by black olive, peppercorn, garrigue, toasted vanilla, pie spice, flint, and wild herbs. With a long and lingering finish built on dense, chewy, and tightly woven tannins, it is sure to mature beautifully over the next two decades plus, and offer supreme rewards, regardless of when you choose to indulge. 

This is one of the rare wines that promises to dazzle twice: First, when you bring it to the table, and your guests recognize the magnitude of the moment. Second, when you revel in the combination of Jaboulet pedigree and one-of-a-kind terroir that make this bottle stand not only with the Northern Rhône icons, but the most regal wines in the world.  

We’ve only offered La Chapelle in large format up to this point, so this is your first chance to take home a standard-size bottle, at a price that comparable blue-chips can’t touch. Today on Wine Access, straight from Jaboulet, it’s just $189.

Look up at Hermitage Hill, one of the most iconic sites in the world of wine, where the most revered producers all have their family names displayed: Chapoutier. Guigal. And at the very top, Paul Jaboulet Aîné. On our last trip to the Northern Rhône, we were honored to visit the legendary Jaboulet winery and the famed hill, which we ascended by car and summited on foot. From the Chapel of St. Christopher at the top of the hill, you can see far across the Rhône to the west, and down the steep vineyard slopes to the tiny town of Tain l’Hermitage below. 

La Chapelle is sourced from the lieux-dits of Le Méal and Les Bessards, two of the most renowned parcels on Hermitage Hill. The extremely granitic Les Bessards produces robust, tannic wines and serves as the backbone of La Chapelle, while richness and fruit come from the looser alluvial soils of lush-producing Le Méal. 

Jaboulet, which Wine Spectator calls “one of the most recognizable names in the wine world,” is a mixture of the ancient and the modern: Just over a decade ago, the domaine was purchased by the Frey family (owners of Bordeaux’s La Lagune and partners in Billecart-Salmon), who have labored meticulously to elevate the estate. They’ve modernized the winemaking and focused on vineyard management, converting some of the domaine’s most famed parcels to organic viticulture.  

After our trip to Jaboulet’s iconic vineyards and sterling winemaking facilities, we tasted at Le Vineum, Jaboulet’s tiny wine bar in Tain l’Hermitage. The iconic reds were spectacular, of course, but we couldn’t help thinking ahead… to pulling them out of the cellar in five, ten, twenty years’ time and reveling in the glory that only bottle age can draw out of Northern Rhône Syrah. We hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to reserve that experience for yourself.