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

Hermitage Chante Alouette Chapoutier 1998

La Maison Chapoutier, undoubtedly one of the best-known names in the Rhône Valley, produces its most prestigious bottles on the Hermitage appellation. The estate covers nearly 300 hectares of vineyards converted to biodynamics. To date, it is the largest vineyard in France to have adopted this mode of cultivation, since obtaining certification in 1999. Chapoutier is often the last to harvest his vines, in order to achieve optimal grape ripeness. Chapoutier’s know-how has also extended to other vineyards: Provence, Beaujolais, Roussillon, Champagne, Alsace, Portugal but also southern Australia.

The family history began in 1808, but it was really in 1879 that its contours took shape, when Polydor Chapoutier bought a few hectares of vines to become a wine producer and merchant. Since then, seven generations have succeeded each other, up to Michel Chapoutier. He now passes the baton to his children Mathilde (in commerce and communication) and Maxime (in the vineyards and the cellar). Together, they perpetuate the family heritage with the aim of highlighting the typicities of the great Rhodanian 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 variety, from vines located under the white house of the same name; the grapes come from three different plots: “Le Méal” is a soil of fluvio-glacial alluvium, “Les Murets” sits on granitic arène, and “Chante-Alouette” rests on loess with a clay-limestone layer. The harvest is vinified for a third in new oak barrels and the rest in tanks, 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 blossom. On the palate it is of remarkable richness, with a very persistent almond finish, and it can be kept for several decades.