A memorable wine dinner moment was when Marcel Orford-Williams, the then Wine Society buyer for the Rhone, turned up to our Domaine Paul Jaboulet Aine dinner with two bottles of the 1991 La Chapelle, from his own cellar, to generously share.  At 22 years old the wine was amazingly vigorous and layered and has stayed in the memory ever since.  So I was excited to take the 2005 La Chapelle along to a recent blind tasting dinner and see what it was like.

The colour was very deep garnet with a brick rim. On the nose: violets in bloom, red & black cherry, baked blackberry tart and toast. A touch of classic ground black pepper, then earth, dried Iberico ham and a whiff of polish.

In the mouth it was bone dry, with bags of refreshing acidity, plenty of ripe fine grained tannin.  These were felt on the gums and cheeks but also as a knot on the tongue. There was subtle oak so probably mostly old oak with a smaller proportion of new.  The wine was concentrated and the fruit fresh and still prominent after 20 years. There were more dried herbs and pepper corns on palate and hints of loamy earth and chestnut mushrooms seemed to only grudgingly speak of the wine’s maturity. The finish was long and savoury.

What balance! even with 14.5% alcohol the wine remained cool and classy. This wine has developed at a glacial pace, earlier bottles only opening up after many hours of decanting and only now is it reaching maturity.  Still the core of fruit and abundant freshness and tannic grip mean it should happily go on for another decade.  

It’s widely reported that the quality of La Chapelle diminished after the 1991 vintage but then gradually recovered once Caroline Frey of Chateau La Lagune took over in 2006.  The 2005 must have still been in barrel so perhaps benefited from Frey’s hand in the final blend if not the subsequent conversion of the vineyards to organic and biodynamic practices and the change to Bordeaux style French oak barrels in later vintages. Whatever the case the 2005 wine is superb!

By the way you won’t find La Chapelle under the Jaboulet name any more it has now been turned into a separate winery called Domaine de la Chapelle.