2012 Domaine Jean Louis Chave St Joseph Rhone

(93 Points) The 2012 Saint Joseph, which was just bottled, showed beautifully, and I continue to see more and more terrific, world-class wines from this appellation. Exhibiting terrific blackberry, ground pepper, crushed rock and underbrush, it’s medium to full-bodied, nicely concentrated and has an open, sexy style that’s already hard to resist. Drink it over the coming decade.


   This was another terrific tasting with Jean-Louis Chave, and this family-run estate continues to fire on all cylinders. They've just finished construction on a cellar extension (the 2014s will be the first vintage made here) and while they still have a ways to go with their efforts in Saint Joseph (which includes a massive newly planted vineyard), this project seems to have progressed to a point where it’s at least possible to imagine the end. All of this appears to be a welcome relief, and the scope and amount of work involved in all of these new projects is truly monumental. They've done all of this while keeping their Hermitage releases as true to their idea of the appellation as possible, and I think as these notes show, they haven’t missed a beat.

 eRobertParker.com #216 Dec 2014 Reviewer: Jeb Dunnuck