In 1834, when Antoine Jaboulet set up his business in Tain l’Hermitage with the aim of producing great wines, he saw his future profession as cultivating the vineyards and maintaining the quality of the land. It was with this mindset that he quickly acquired his first vineyards on the Hermitage slopes and the Crozes Hermitage plains. In 2006, the Freys (owners of Chateau La Lagune in Bordeaux) took over Paul Jaboulet Aine, where winemaker Caroline now works with her teams in a single-minded quest for perfection; combining cutting-edge winemaking with the scrupulous care given to vines grown in exceptional terroirs. They have since also acquired vineyards in the appellations of Cote Rotie, Condrieu and Crozes Hermitage. All estates are now certified organic and the team broadly follow bio-dynamic principles. Jaboulet’s most celebrated wine is its famed Hermitage La Chapelle, named after the chapel that overlooks this most celebrated of vineyards. Jaboulet have owned the chapel since the end of the First World War – it’s an icon of this part of the Rhone Valley and marks where the best vines are grown.

More dense, concentrated structured, the knockout 2011 Hermitage La Chapelle, which comes mostly from the warmer, Le Meal Lieut, is up with the top 7 - 8 wines in the vintage. Offering up layers of black raspberry, powdered rock, chocolate, roasted meats, and graphite, it flows onto the palate with full-bodied richness, solid mid-palate depth, and masses of fine tannin that are sweet and polished. Reasonably approachable given the wealth of fruit and texture, it should nevertheless be given a handful of years in the cellar