Guide to the Hermitage Wine Region

Overview

Hermitage produces the greatest Syrah-based wines from anywhere. Côte-Rôtie, maybe even Cornas, might be hipper than Hermitage these days. But in my mind, it's similar to the way the wines of the Jura are hipper than, say, Chambertin from Burgundy. Sure, the cool kids drink more Jura, but they never turn down a taste of Chambertin. Because Chambertin is better. And likewise, Hermitage is better than Cornas. It's probably also better than Côte-Rôtie.

Hermitage also happens to be the easiest Northern Rhône AOC to understand.
It is simply a hill, with the Rhône River curving tightly around its western side. A small chapel devoted to St. Christopher sits at the top. Surrounding this chapel, there are roughly 137 hectares of vines. For perspective, that's about the size of two reasonably-sized Bordeaux châteaux: combine Mouton Rothschild and Rauzan-Ségla and you're just about there.

The Terroir

Even the soils are relatively easy to understand in Hermitage. Like all the greatest sites of the Northern Rhône, there is granite. Here's a simple rule of thumb: the further west you go on the hill — that is, toward the river — the more granite there is. To the east, you find more of the glacial deposits that you get in a more alpine terroir.
There is, of course, reason behind the simplicity. The Rhône Valley separates the two great mountain chains of France. To the west is the Massif Central, where there is granite. To the east is the Alps. Therefore, for the most part, the great terroirs of the Northern Rhône are made up of the easterly edges of the Massif Central.

You may be thinking: but isn't Hermitage — with its little brother Crozes — actually on the east side of the river? And that is true. Now. But a long time ago the Rhône actually ran to the east of the hill of Hermitage. As rivers sometimes do, it changed course, and started to flow west of the hill. An anomaly was born.

To put it simply, you can think of the Northern Rhône as being influenced mostly by the granite of the eastern corner of the Massif Central, but with influence from the Alps on its most easterly edges in Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage.

The Vineyards

Like all of wine-producing France, the hill of Hermitage is divided into vineyard sites called climats or lieux-dits, each of which is slightly different from its neighbors, and therefore produces slightly different grapes. In Hermitage, there are four factors that control what kind of wine is produced by any climat:

Is the site located in the western, more granitic portion of the hill, or in the eastern, more alpine section?
How high up is the site? Higher sites are slightly cooler (across France, you lose about 1 degree Celsius for every hundred meters). You also have differences in soil. Lower down, the soils are influenced by the river, somewhat alluvial with a mix of clay and pebbles in addition to granite. The higher you go, the thinner the topsoil and the more solid the granite.
Which direction does the site point? Slopes that face south are the warmest.
Is the vineyard site sloped or terraced? A section near the bottom of the hill is terraced, reducing sun exposure and drainage. Some sites are completely flat.

Taking these factors together explains much of what lies behind Hermitage's most famous vineyard sites: Les Bessards, Le Méal, L'Hermite, and Greffieux. Let me break these down.

Bessards

This is ultra-Hermitage: a solid slab of granite that extends high on the hill and mostly faces south, but with portions that also lean west. Here is the most tannic, structured Syrah, for long-lived wines. Chave believes that Bessards is an essential ingredient to Hermitage.

Le Méal

Le Méal is just to the east of Bessards and has some alpine influence in the soils. But still it is mostly granite. The alpine influence consists of glacial deposits that retain heat in the vineyards. Le Méal also faces more directly south than Bessards. All this means that the key thing to know about Le Méal is that it is warmer than Bessards. The wine it produces is riper and fruitier.

Le 'Hermite

L'Hermite sits on top of the hill, above Bessards and Le Méal. It is here that you find the chapel, which sits among some of the most solidly granite soils in the entire AOC. But L'Hermite is a jumble of all the hill's different terroirs: in parts you find granite, but elsewhere you get alpine soils, more crumbly forms of granite, and even loess soils. The red wines from this site are fresh, higher in acid, and structured. In the parts with more losses, Syrah is less successful and many producers choose to grow Marsanne or Roussanne.

Greffieux

Not held in quite the same regard as the other three sites, Greffieux is still very high in quality. It is essentially below Le Méal, although a portion of it sticks up the hill between Le Méal and Bessards, briefly touching L'Hermite. That portion is quite solidly granitic, but the rest of the site is a mix of granite, clay and limestone. The wines produced are refined and aromatic, with less powerful tannins.

Very little single-climat Hermitage is produced, and most believe that Hermitage requires a blend of grapes from different parts of the hill. This is certainly true of the two most famous examples, Chave's Hermitage and Jaboulet's La Chapelle. The tradition is a bit like how Bartolo Mascarello insisted that true Barolo requires a blend of grapes from different Barolo sites — except that Hermitage is only about 5% of the size of Barolo, so we are talking about blending across a much more narrowly constrained scope of terroir.

Producers

The three most important producers of Hermitage are Chave, Jaboulet and Chapoutier. I'll describe each in turn and then mention some smaller producers worth knowing.

Chave

Chave is the greatest producer in Hermitage. His family has been making wine there since the 1400s — sixteen generations and counting. The current proprietor is Jean-Louis, and the domaine's full name is Domaine Jean-Louis Chave (in honor of his grandfather, who bore the same name). Jean-Louis took over from his father Gérard in 1992, after studies at UC Davis. He runs the estate today with his wife Erin Cannon-Chave.

Chave is a true believer in blending, and the red Hermitage is produced from numerous vineyards, though the backbone comes from Bessards. He is not a full-blown traditionalist, preferring to destem most of his fruit, fermenting mostly in smaller casks and steel rather than the traditional open wood casks, and aging his wines in Burgundy-sized 228L barrels (though only a small portion are new).

Chave's Hermitage combines purity with grandeur. The wines speak clearly and with intensity. Grand vintages age effortlessly; weaker vintages always surprise — even the 1996s and 2002s, bad vintages both, are shockingly good wines, though for drinking at a younger age.

The Hermitage Blanc — a Marsanne-Roussanne blend from multiple sites on the hill including Rocoules and Péléat — is one of the world's truly great white wines. See our complete guide to Northern Rhône whites for more.

Jaboulet

Paul Jaboulet Aîné is not nearly as old as the Chave family, but they have been producing Northern Rhône wines for nearly 200 years. They have a large négociant business (making wine from various AOCs with purchased grapes), but also own a whopping 22 hectares of their own land in Hermitage. Their largest plot is in Le Méal, where they have about 30% of their Hermitage vines.

Their signature wine is one of the world's most iconic: "La Chapelle" Hermitage. La Chapelle is simply a trade name that refers to the Chapel of St. Christopher. The wine is a blend of Le Méal, Bessards, Greffieux and another top vineyard site, Rocoules.

La Chapelle from vintages like 1961, 1978 and 1990 are considered some of the greatest red wines ever made. In the 1990s the winery went into decline and many of the wines under-performed. Perhaps it was family disputes, the death of then-patriarch Gérard Jaboulet, and over-production.

In 2006, the Frey family (who own La Lagune in Bordeaux and are leading shareholders in Billecart-Salmon) purchased Jaboulet. Caroline Frey, a trained oenologist, has run the winemaking since then. The transformation has been remarkable. The vineyards have been certified organic since 2016 and entirely biodynamic and regenerative since 2021. La Chapelle is fully back to its former glory — the run from 2015 through 2020 may turn out to be as legendary as the historic vintages.

Jaboulet's La Chapelle has a slightly more modern feel than Chave's Hermitage — perhaps because of the higher portion of fruit from the warmer, lusher Le Méal. The tannins are very sophisticated; the oak shows in the wines slightly more than at Chave (despite only 20% new oak per vintage). These are great wines that need a bit more time in the cellar before they take you to Hermitage's heart and soul.

The white companion, Chevalier de Stérimberg (the white La Chapelle), has likewise returned to top form. See the whites guide for more.

Chapoutier

Chapoutier is another old firm, this one a little older than Jaboulet, with roots in an important old Bordeaux house, Calvet, that played a significant role in the Northern Rhône's commercial development. They are a giant company, producing around seven million bottles a year. A tiny fraction of those bottles are Hermitage, and they can be very good.

Chapoutier is like a polar opposite of Chave. They do not generally blend their Hermitage holdings, instead focusing red Hermitage production on four single-vineyard wines: Le Pavillon (Bessards), L'Ermite, Le Méal, and Les Greffieux. They farm biodynamically and aim for extremely low yields with super-concentrated grapes. The wines are 100% destemmed and aged 40-50% in new oak. They are very powerful, and you could say modern. Of these "biggies," I find Chapoutier's the least approachable in their youth, and they need to be aged a long time.

The Chapoutier white Hermitages — De L'Orée (100% Marsanne), L'Ermite Blanc, Le Méal Blanc — are ageworthy too. See the white guide.

Other Important Names

Ferraton
Another important négociant with ties to Chapoutier and following a similar approach (biodynamic farming, single-vineyard wines), but with more of a lean toward tradition.

Marc Sorrel (now Guillaume Sorrel)
Marc Sorrel was for years one of the great small traditionalists of Hermitage. His son Guillaume has now fully taken over — Marc retired after the 2018 vintage, and Guillaume's first solo vintage was 2019. Guillaume trained in Burgundy and the Rhône and has brought a more precise touch while preserving the house style and adapting vineyard work for warmer, drier modern vintages. The wines are still small in quantity, traditional, and ageworthy. The red Hermitage Le Gréal — 90% Syrah, 10% Marsanne, blended from Le Méal and Les Greffieux — is the flagship. The white Les Rocoules is special (an old bottle was my “epiphany” white Hermitage). See the whites guide.

Bernard Faurie
A small grower who worked in a very traditional style. His final vintage was 2020; he has since handed off most of his vineyards (including those in Saint-Joseph) to his son-in-law, and Faurie has effectively retired. His wines were always hard to find and are now even more collectible. Grab bottles when you find them, as there is some chance that this will go the way of other retired great Northern Rhone producers…

Delas, Belle, Habrard, Remizières
A handful of additional names worth knowing. Delas, owned by Roederer, has been improving — their Domaine des Tourettes Hermitage deserves a look. Belle, Habrard, and Domaine des Remizières round out the list of producers I will sometimes turn to.

White Hermitage

For years I promised a single blog post on the white wines of the Northern Rhône and never delivered. I have now finally delivered it. See our complete guide to the white wines of the Northern Rhône for everything you need to know — including the producers who make great white Hermitage (Chave, Chapoutier, Sorrel, Ferraton, Delas, Jaboulet's Chevalier de Stérimberg) and the rest of the region's whites: Condrieu, Saint-Joseph Blanc, Saint-Péray, and Château-Grillet.

Crozes-Hermitage

I think of Crozes as Hermitage's little brother. It's the vineyard land surrounding the hill of Hermitage, mostly east of the Rhône. It's sort of like Hermitage, because it's close by. But it isn't really a Hermitage, because it isn't on that hill. Instead it's Crozes — the name derived from one of the surrounding villages.

I also like to think of it as the single best source of straightforward varietal wine made from Syrah. You want to know what Syrah tastes like? Get a bottle of Crozes. You want a decent weeknight bottle and your recipe calls for Syrah? Crozes will do just fine. Crozes is really useful.

But it can also be a serious AOC of its own. It is a large area with a complex and diverse mix of terroirs. The pattern follows what you find in Hermitage: granitic soils ideal for Syrah in the western sites, more alpine-influenced soils in the east. Close to the river, you find gravel and other alluvial influences. There are flatlands and hills.

Producers to know

The reference producer of Crozes has long been Alain Graillot. Graillot — who proved that great Crozes was possible when the AOC was still considered minor — died in 2022. His sons Maxime and Antoine continue the domaine and the house style remains intact. The basic Crozes-Hermitage and the single-vineyard La Guiraude are the wines to know. Allocations have tightened since Alain's passing but the quality is undimmed.

Jaboulet's Domaine de Thalabert is the other historical reference. Made from a single vineyard, it is one of the great wines of the region. Historically — when Thalabert was bottled under the humble Côtes-du-Rhône AOC because Crozes wasn't recognized until 1937 — it sold for more than Saint-Joseph or Cornas. I have had twenty- and thirty-year-old Thalaberts that rival Hermitage. Under the Frey family's stewardship the quality has been even higher in recent vintages.

Beyond Graillot and Thalabert, there are now numerous serious Crozes producers:

Yann Chave — son of Bernard Chave (no relation to the Hermitage Chaves), now firmly established as one of the most exciting Crozes producers. His range of single-vineyards (Le Rouvre, Tête de Cuvée) shows real terroir definition.
Domaine Belle — in Larnage, producing serious Crozes red (Roche Pierre, Cuvée Louis Belle) and white.
Domaine des Remizières — produces a range from entry-level to top-tier (Autrement) Crozes, plus Hermitage.
Domaine Combier — reliable, biodynamic, with both red and white Crozes including the top Clos des Grives bottling.
Dard et Ribo — best known for their Saint-Joseph, but their Crozes is just as good and this AOC is actually their home base. Tightly allocated and culty.

My bottom-line advice on Crozes:

Keep drinking Crozes-Hermitage when you just want quality Syrah for under, say, $30.
But don't avoid the region when you want something special — there are now a handful of examples that rival the Northern Rhône's best.

Buying Hermitage

It would be remiss not to mention that we do often have some Hermitage in stock here at Flatiron. But, to do a good job of buying and collecting Hermitage, you really have to partner up with a wine merchant. So here's my advice:

Pick your favorite wine merchant (hopefully us, but there are several others to choose from that do a good job with Northern Rhônes), and let them know you're interested in Hermitage.
Sign up for their newsletters and watch for offers.
Decide how much Hermitage you want to drink every year — whether it's three bottles or eighteen — and make sure you are buying that number of bottles every year.
In great vintages, go a little over; in weaker vintages, you can go under. Definitely don't skip vintages entirely — you don't want to miss out on hidden gems like 1996 Chave.

Ideally, you'll want to make Hermitage from Jaboulet and Chave the backbone of your collection, though it wouldn't hurt to sprinkle in odd finds from other producers. And definitely consider getting some Crozes from Graillot, Thalabert, and Yann Chave.

As for drinking: you generally want to wait about ten years before you drink Hermitage, though occasionally you will come across vintages — 2011 comes to mind — that seem pretty good at a younger age. Keep them in a temperature-controlled cellar or professional storage. While you're waiting for your cellar to mature, you'll need to stock up on back vintages. Look for library releases and private-cellar opportunities (we send out plenty to subscribers of our Fine and Rare list).

Recent Vintages

2019 — powerful, ripe, statuesque. The top Hermitages are thunderous; they will live for decades. Cellar through 2030+.
2020 — exceptional. "Smiles all round" from the region's vignerons. Approachable and ageworthy at once; balance recalls 1990 and 2010.
2021 — cool and classical. Restrained Hermitage with marked acidity. The whites are outstanding.
2022 — hot and dry. Some ripening blockages in Hermitage made for lighter wines than expected from the conditions; the best are still very good.
2023 — a vintage of perseverance: heatwave plus harvest rain. Hermitage solid but variable; Côte-Rôtie was the standout.
2024 — the wettest year on record. Lighter reds for early-medium drinking. The whites are the story.