John Livingstone-Learmonth spends time with the meticulous, grounded vigneron behind one of the northern Rhône’s great family domaines to discuss the importance of history, nature, aesthetics and blending in his famed Hermitage and St-Joseph wines.
JEAN-LOUIS CHAVE IS vexed. ‘Why would anyone want to drink what is a grand vin and find it is skinny, not rich?’, he asks. he is referring to the current trend to make white Rhônes in a pared-back manner, as if they can be successful aperitifs, for immediate drinking.
‘Whites have drastically changed,’ Chave continues. ‘how people talk about them, using Burgundian vocabulary; words like “taut, tense”, words that used to be “honey-like, soft, rich”. he says white hermitage is a wine based on glycerol, suited to drinking with a meal: ‘To like white hermitage, you have to be a gastronome. You can’t disconnect it from food.’
His vision is long-term, far away from fashion and its cycles. he frequently refers to history to interpret what he sees now, to give context, as befits a man from a family of soldiers and priests, whose first ownership of vineyards dates back to 1481. But history is not set in aspic, as he freely acknowledges: ‘Wine should not be stuck in the past, and must move forward without ignoring the past. People may change, but that precise spot in the vineyard doesn’t change.’
His insights into white hermitage are almost more revealing than our discussions of the red. The blending process, to which the Chave family has been long wedded, with no trendy, plot-specific micro-cuvées, is very delicate when applied to its white hermitage. Achieving balance in a wine that is rich, but also low in acidity, is a stimulating challenge for him, as it was for his father Gérard.
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