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Hermitage Cuvée Cathelin, J-L Chave 1991

RegionRhône
Subregion France > Rhône > Northern Rhône > Hermitage
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietySyrah

View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by J-L Chave

Tasting Notes

The 1991 is a sleeper. I suspect many readers have forgotten how spectacular this vintage was in the northern Rhone, particularly Cote Rotie.

When I arrived at 6:00 p.m., September 11, 2001, at Domaine Chave, I found Chave in tears and his family distraught. I had heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center, but not the subsequent collapse of both towers. Gerard Chave knows all about suicidal bombers, having served in the French military during the Algerian revolution. It took a long time to gather sufficient focus to do my tastings. However, the brilliant wines that unfolded in the cellars were, at least for several hours, a much needed antidote for pushing to the back of my mind the horror of 9-11-01.

98
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (140), April 2002
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.