There is a particular kind of pleasure in opening a magnum. Not the showmanship of it, though there is some of that, but the quiet confidence it represents: someone, some years ago, chose to wait. With J.L. Chave's Hermitage, that patience is rewarded like almost nothing else in the Northern Rhône.
Chave is the standard by which Hermitage is measured. The family has farmed these granite slopes since the fifteenth century, and the wines carry that long view in every vintage: Syrah of real power, but power held on a tight rein, savoury rather than showy, built to age for decades rather than impress on opening night.
Why the large format matters
Wine ages more slowly in magnum. The ratio of wine to the tiny amount of air under the cork is doubled, so maturation is gentler and more even. A great vintage in magnum does not just last longer, it arrives at a better place, with more freshness and more detail intact. For a wine like Chave Hermitage, already built for the long haul, that is close to the ideal vessel.
A bottle is for an evening. A magnum is for an occasion, and for a table of people who will remember it.
The 2009 is a gloriously generous vintage, ripe and broad-shouldered, and in magnum it still has the structure to carry that fruit for many years yet. Decant it, give it air, and serve it with something unhurried, lamb, game, a long Sunday.
Drink or hold?
Hold, if you can bear to. These are only beginning to open. But if an occasion presents itself and a magnum is to hand, you will not be disappointed. That, after all, is what they are for.