The 2010 Crozes-Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert, which I raved about last year, is slightly better than their brilliant 2009. It boasts a dense purple color along with a beautiful perfume of camphor, licorice, forest floor, black currants and Christmas fruitcake. With tremendous intensity, full body and supple tannins, it should drink well for 10-15 years, perhaps longer where well-stored. This cuvee is always one of the best buys in the Northern Rhone.

- Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate - 27/12/2012

Also outstanding, the 2010 Crozes-Hermitage Domaine de Thalabert is slightly less opulent and more delineated than the 2009. It possesses flowery, black and red fruit notes intermixed with notions of licorice and earth, fresh acids, medium to full body, beautiful fruit, purity and texture, and more minerality than its older sibling. It should drink well for 10-15 years. (Not yet released) One needs no further evidence of the extraordinary turn around in the quality of the Jaboulet wines than what proprietress Caroline Frey has accomplished in 2009 as well as 2010. As I indicated last year, this is one of the great qualitative turn arounds in the wine world. It is welcomed by all wine lovers given the historic legacy of the wines of Jaboulet and the importance of this famous firm in all of France. Ms. Frey, who is also responsible for the brilliant wines produced at La Lagune in Bordeaux, has reduced the amount of new oak for the red wines to about 20% and to negligible proportions for the whites. A second wine of Hermitage, La Petite Chapelle, is fashioned from 33% or more of the production that is culled out to guarantee that the great reputation of the Hermitage La Chapelle has enjoyed over the last century is maintained. Importer: Frederick Wildman, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700