Vinous diary for CNY

TWO evenings ago I drank a wine which brought back many warm memories, albeit tinged with much sadness, of a great friend, Gerard Jaboulet, of the famous wine producer Paul Jaboulet Aine in Tain l'Hermitage, Rhone Valley. The wine was Hermitage La Chapelle 2000.

Hermitage La Chapelle 2000, Paul Jaboulet Aine

MEDIUM-HUED dark brownish red, giving out a youthful lovely aroma of ripe fruit - oranges and tropical fruit. A big-volume wine, firm, rich taste of ripe tropical fruit, so tasty was the wine one was tempted to take mouthful after mouthful! Ripe, rich taste, orangey, tropical fruit with very seductive savoury undertones, finishing long and clean. A lovely wine.

This bottle had been first opened on Monday, March 2, two glasses drunk and the balance re-corked and consumed the following evening Tuesday, March 3. The intervening 24 hours had allowed for the wine to breathe and complete its development. Sadly…