La Chapelle Blanc
⏳ Drinking Window
2024 - 2040
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Lobster Thermidor, roasted sweetbreads, mature Comt e cheese
✨ Technical Specifications
While the legendary red 'La Chapelle' has captivated collectors for decades, its rare white sibling, Hermitage 'La Chapelle' Blanc, represents the absolute pinnacle of white Rhone winemaking. Born from the historic slopes of the Hermitage hill—where the knight Gaspard de Sterimberg built his stone chapel in 1235 after returning wounded from the Albigensian Crusade—this micro-cuv ee is sourced from old vines planted in the prestigious 'Maison Blanche' climat. Here, the soils of loess, clay, and limestone impart a profound mineral tension. Crafted primarily from Marsanne, the wine undergoes gentle pressing, fermentation, and extended aging in French oak barrels (including a portion of demi-muids). The result is a majestic, full-bodied masterpiece that seamlessly weaves together notes of white peach, honeysuckle, toasted almonds, and beeswax, supported by a saline, mineral-driven finish.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1834 by Antoine Jaboulet on the sun-drenched granite slopes of Tain-l'Hermitage, Maison Paul Jaboulet Aîné stands as one of the Rhône Valley's most storied viticultural estates. Acquired in 2006 by the Frey family, the domain experienced a profound renaissance under the stewardship of master oenologist and viticulturist Caroline Frey, who converted its extensive Northern Rhône holdings to certified organic viticulture alongside rigorous biodynamic regimens. While globally renowned for its legendary Hermitage reds like La Chapelle, the estate crafts equally sublime white wines from premier terroirs spanning Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Condrieu, and the Southern Rhône. Here, Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier, and Grenache Blanc are harvested at meticulous phenolic maturity from complex alluvial pebbles, loess, and fractured granitic soils. Vinified with gentle gravity flow, temperature-regulated fermentation, and judicious French oak contact on fine lees, Jaboulet whites—exemplified by Chevalier de Stérimberg, Domaine de Thalabert Mule Blanche, and Les Jalets Blanc—deliver exceptional minerality, textural waxiness, and refined age-worthy precision.
🍇 Grapes
Marsanne
🍷 ABV
13.5-14.5%