The score for 2018 Domaine Jean Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc is 100 points from Robert Parker and the tasting note - Chave's 2018 Hermitage Blanc, now that it's been blended and bottled for over a year, smashed my already lofty expectations. Showing a wonderfully delicate and intricate nose of white flowers, toasted grain and white peach, it's also impeccably balanced. Full-bodied, rich and concentrated, it nevertheless comes across as almost weightless but with amazing presence and length on the palate. If you're fortunate enough to latch onto multiple bottles, open one now to experience this legend as a young wine, then try to hide the others deep in the cellar. When I arrived at chez Chave on the afternoon of September 16, Jean-Louis Chave was feeling philosophical about the 2021 vintage. "You can be safe and pick early, but without quality grapes. When you wait, you can have the same thing, but you have a chance at something great." Thinking long term, he went on to say, "We needed the rain." With that, and after a quick chat with his American wife, Erin, we headed into the cellars to renew my lessons on the subject of Hermitage.