98 Wine Spectator
Fantastic quality makes your palate spin with joy. Warm July and August with timely rains were a recipe for greatness, and this is a vin de garde. Seamless and silky, but also with a firm backbone of mineral, wet earth, plum, blackberry and leather notes. An old-fashioned red with a long finish.--La Chapelle vertical. Drink now through 2020. ?PM
98 Wine Spectator
Fantastic quality makes your palate spin with joy. Warm July and August with timely rains were a recipe for greatness, and this is a vin de garde. Seamless and silky, but also with a firm backbone of mineral, wet earth, plum, blackberry and leather notes. An old-fashioned red with a long finish.--La Chapelle vertical. Drink now through 2020. ?PM
98 James Suckling
This is autumn in the glass, with wet-leaf, fresh-mushroom, smoke and dried-meat character. Orange peel, dark fruits, and game pâté. Full body with incredible depth, length, ripe fruit and intensity. It goes on for minutes. Stunning finish. It is so rich, decadent and intense, but fresh and long. It defines greatness. It defines what hermitage was, is and should be.
88 Robert Parker
With each additional year of evolution, my rating for the 1983 La Chapelle falls. Although impressive early in life, it has taken on less than positive characteristics. The dark garnet color revealed substantial amber at the watery edge. The aromatics revealed scents of ground beef, coffee, cedar, dried herbs, tobacco, and damp earth. The wine was noticeably astringent, medium to full-bodied, harsh, and forbiddingly backward and austere. I believe I made an error in judgment when I rated this wine outstanding early in its development. As it matures, the tannin dominates.
While no one, even the Jaboulets, wants to give up on the 1983, it has become disjointed and out of balance, with astringent, nasty tannin. My best guess is that it will continue to decline and never live up to its promising beginning. Owners are advised to consume, sell, or trade it.
88 Robert Parker
With each additional year of evolution, my rating for the 1983 La Chapelle falls. Although impressive early in life, it has taken on less than positive characteristics. The dark garnet color revealed substantial amber at the watery edge. The aromatics revealed scents of ground beef, coffee, cedar, dried herbs, tobacco, and damp earth. The wine was noticeably astringent, medium to full-bodied, harsh, and forbiddingly backward and austere. I believe I made an error in judgment when I rated this wine outstanding early in its development. As it matures, the tannin dominates.
While no one, even the Jaboulets, wants to give up on the 1983, it has become disjointed and out of balance, with astringent, nasty tannin. My best guess is that it will continue to decline and never live up to its promising beginning. Owners are advised to consume, sell, or trade it.