The thickness of the skins on Chave’s old vine parcels is what gives this wine its unrestricted depth and intensity, as well as it s ability to age for a very long time. Aromas run from very pretty and floral, through peaches and lemons and into crushed and grilled nuts. The palate is such a textural essay with an attractively youthful and pithy shunt of tannin that underwrites a considerably long finish and long cellaring potential. Age and try from 2030.

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.

Pure gold, the 2018 Hermitage Blanc is another heavenly Hermitage Blanc from this estate that could not be any better. More in the style of the 2009 with its ripe, sexy, yet still pure and seamless profile, it offers quintessential notes of quince, honeyed lemons, white flowers, marzipan, and buttered toast. Full-bodied, deep, unctuous, and blockbuster styled on the palate, it has a level of purity that's off the charts. It offers incredible pleasure today, and you should unquestionably try a bottle over the coming year or two, then it will need a decade of cellaring. Hermitage Blanc – or white wine, for that matter – simply doesn't get any better.