M. Chapoutier - Côtes-du-Rhône Belleruche 2011

Bettane & Desseauve

About the estate:

Michel Chapoutier is now ably supported by his children, Mathilde and Maxime, in running the largest wine house in the Northern Rhône, a historic specialist in Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage. Chapoutier is, on the one hand, a major wine merchant, but also produces top-tier estate wines, with the estate’s vineyards having long been cultivated using biodynamic methods. The single-vineyard selections, the top of the range, perfectly reflect the owner’s philosophy: single-vineyard, single-varietal, and produced annually, they are above all a reflection of the terroir, in its best aspects as well as, at times, its excesses.

Guide Hachette des vins

About the estate:

This venerable (19th-century) and leading winery, propelled onto the international stage by Michel Chapoutier beginning in the 1990s, offers a wide range of wines produced from its own vineyards (345 hectares, cultivated biodynamically) or from purchased grapes, across most of the Rhône Valley’s flagship appellations, as well as in Roussillon and Alsace. His children, Mathilde and Maxime, have recently joined the family business.

Robert Parker - Wine Advocate

RVF - La Revue du Vin de France / Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France

About the estate:

Under the Maison M. Chapoutier label, we feature wines from the wine merchant division of this 200-year-old institution based in Tain-l'Hermitage. Michel Chapoutier, now joined by his daughter Mathilde, offers a very wide range of Rhône appellations here, with a production volume approaching one million bottles. But the Chapoutier name is also present in other regions (Champagne, Alsace, Languedoc, and even Australia), a testament to this family’s dynamism. While some vintages are compelling, others, on the other hand, are far more run-of-the-mill. This inconsistency leads us to remove the star from the house this year.

Jancis Robinson

Jeb Dunnuck