1990 - Hermitage La Chapelle Rouge, Paul Jaboulet Aine

From a hotter and drier vintage, the 1990 Hermitage La Chapelle offers up a deep bouquet of dark fruits, spices, licorice and perfectly ripe black fruits. Full-bodied, layered and seamless, it's a wine that expresses itself more through its magnificent texture than through an immediately expressive bouquet—the velvety, powerful tannins and contained power speak more eloquently than words. This is a perfect wine that is quintessentially La Chapelle in its tannic, inner-mouth expression.

When Caroline Frey took over in 1996, Jancis Robinson had just published an article called The Rise and Fall of La Chapelle, pointing out the many issues that had befallen this iconic name in the previous decade. Bottle variation may definitely be an issue, but this 1990 - tasted during a recent vertical of the estate at 67 Pall Mall club in London - was glorious, and the wine of the night for me. Silky soft tannins, melted into the structure but still offering a graceful hold to the softly spoken spiced blackberry fruits. Hard to believe but even at 33 years old it takes time to fully open, getting better in the glass.

Rh?ne lovers were out in full force on this night. Sadly, I only got to taste a handful of the wines being passed around. Still, these were four of the greatest wines I have ever tasted. The 1990 La Chapelle held its own in this grouping, and then some. The purity of the fruit and the wine’s finish were mind-bending.

From Kate Dugdale's cellar. Dugdale thought this was a more youthful version of 1961 (which we did not taste in this vertical). Deep garnet. Smoky, aromatic and then on the palate more obvious smoked meat and richness. Full, peppery, so deep. Freshness to balance. Firm and very long. Incredibly rich and concentrated but with a fresh bite at the end. (The Wine Society bottling seemed more meaty and chewy.) (JH)