1998 Michel Chapoutier - Chante - Alouette. Blc - Hermitage - 2 Bottles (0.75L)

Maison Chapoutier, undoubtedly one of the best-known names in the Rhone Valley, produces its most prestigious bottles on the Hermitage appellation. The estate extends over nearly 300 hectares of vineyards converted to biodynamics. To date, it is the largest vineyard in France to have adopted this farming method since certification in 1999. Chapoutier is often the last to harvest his vines, in order to obtain optimal grape maturity. Chapoutier's know-how has also extended to other vineyards: Provence, Beaujolais, Roussillon, Champagne, Alsace, Portugal, but also the south of Australia.

The family history began in 1808, but it was really in 1879 that its outline emerged, when Polydor Chapoutier bought a few hectares of vines to become a wine producer and merchant. Since then, seven generations have followed one another, up to Michel Chapoutier. He now passes the baton to his children Mathilde (in commerce and communication) and Maxime (in the vineyards and the cellars). Together, they carry on the family heritage with the desire to highlight the typicities of the great Rhone terroirs.

Read the Journal article on the Chapoutier estate

About the vintage

The White Hermitage Chante Alouette from Maison Chapoutier is made from the Marsanne varietal, on vines located under the estate’s White House of the same name; the grapes come from three different plots: “Le Méal” is a soil of fluvioglacial alluvium, “Les Murets” is formed on granitic sands, and “Chante-Alouette” rests on loess with a clay-limestone layer. The harvest is vinified for a third in new barrels and the rest in vats, then aged for about a year. This exceptional white wine develops complex and subtle aromas of quince, ginger, honey, acacia with a note of linden. With remarkable richness on the palate, underscored by a very persistent almond finish, it can be kept for several decades.