The Chave family's home base is actually Mauves—the capital of the Saint-Joseph appellation—though they are far more famous for Hermitage. When Jean-Louis took the helm in 1992, he replanted the family's original Saint-Joseph vineyards, which had been abandoned after phylloxera in the early 1900s, restoring a century-lost connection to their ancestral terroir. These are steep granite hillsides requiring entirely hand-tended viticulture, producing Syrah of aromatic purity and mineral focus. The 2017 vintage delivered an early, warm growing season across the Northern Rhône, with frost and hail reducing Saint-Joseph yields by up to thirty percent—concentrating what remained. In magnum, the slower evolution reveals deeper complexity: black cherry, crushed raspberry, white pepper, smoky-floral nuances, and a long, fresh finish. This is Chave at its most approachable—the entry point to a sixteen-generation legacy—but in magnum, it ages with a grace that belies its village-level status.