Chapoutier’s Cuvée de l’Orée is one of three single-vineyard white Hermitage wines produced by Michel Chapoutier from very old vine Marsanne grown on the Hermitage hill above Tain-l’Hermitage, and is consistently ranked among the greatest dry white wines in the Rhône Valley. Produced from approximately 600 cases annually from the specific lieu-dit that bears its name on the eastern lower portion of the Hermitage hill, the wine is aged in old demi-muids for extended periods and released only when it is ready to offer the combination of richness, mineral depth and tertiary complexity that Chapoutier demands from this exceptional site. The wine-searcher aggregate for the l’Orée across vintages consistently shows scores of 94-97/100, confirming its systematic recognition by all major approved publications as a wine of Grand Cru ambition and extraordinary longevity. The 2011 Rhône vintage produced wines of excellent balance and classical character, avoiding the excesses of the very hot 2003 or the over-ripe character of some hot years, and providing ideal conditions for a wine of l’Orée’s naturally rich and unctuous Marsanne character to develop an excellent natural balance between density and freshness.

Marsanne on the Hermitage hill is unique: the variety’s naturally high phenolic content, low acidity and deep aromatic complexity reach their most extraordinary expression on the hill’s granite, clay and limestone soils, producing wines that are impenetrable and unappealing in their youth but develop, over a decade or more in bottle, into one of wine’s most distinctive and compelling experiences. A 2011 l’Orée in the magnum format, now approximately twelve to thirteen years from harvest, will be approaching the beginning of its optimal drinking window, with the primary fruit and oxidative tightness of the wine’s youth giving way to the full secondary complexity of aged Marsanne: honey, beeswax, lemon oil, marzipan and mineral depth of extraordinary persistence.

White Hermitage from Chapoutier in the magnum format represents one of the finest and rarest large-format Rhône Valley white wine acquisitions in this catalogue. The l’Orée’s reputation for extraordinary longevity, combined with the ideal conditions of the magnum format and the 2011 vintage’s classical balance, makes this a wine that deserves patient appreciation over many years to come.

Deep gold with a complex and evolving nose of honey, beeswax, toasted hazelnut, preserved lemon, dried apricot, almond cream, white truffle and a fine Hermitage granite-mineral depth. Full-bodied with extraordinary texture, remarkable natural freshness for its age and a very long, complex, mineral finish of great development and persistence. Best now through 2040.

 The 2011 Ermitage Cuvee de l'Oree comes from a lieu-dit known as Les Murets planted with 80- to 90-year-old Marsanne vines. The bouquet offers up scents of Asian spices, lychee nuts, white currant liqueur and peach and apricot marmalade. This stunning, honeyed, flamboyant white is perfection in a glass. Drink it over the next half century. Drink 2013-2027 - Wine Advocate