Domaine de la Chapelle Hermitage La Chapelle 2021

Floral and fragrant on the nose, so beautifully expressive and inviting. Clean and clear, so smooth and seductive with strawberry, cherry and raspberry with soft florality and a tight, wet stone, slate edge giving an iron and mineral tang. Hints of blood orange – bitter zest – with clove and wood spice, pepper tobacco and liquorice too. Fun and friendly, packed full of flavour with lovely, well-integrated tannins, barely there, all the flavour and concentration is coming from the fruit. Not the most expansive or rich, this is lighter and more delicate despite the overall sense of heat and spice and fruit. Long finish, with clear terroir markers. Well defined with a sense of refinement. 3.74pH. Ageing for 12 months in French oak barrels (15% new), and in natural concrete eggs with malolactic fermentation. The first time this historic wine by Caroline Frey will be sold on the Place de Bordeaux. Drinking window: 2025-2035. Score – 96. (Georgina Hindle, decanter.com, July 31, 2023)