Well, actually it wasn’t last night, it was at a couple of weeks ago at a picnic lunch right next to the tiny, much photographed, chapel atop the hill of Hermitage overlooking the Rhône river.

The chapel is owned by Jaboulet, as is a good portion of the vineyard surrounding the hermit’s retreat, and it is this  steeply-terraced vineyard that supplies the grapes for the company’s flagship wine, La Chapelle.

We drank the 1995 that lunch, and I have never before enjoyed such an exalted wine in an outdoor setting. It was everything a great Hermitage is meant to be – vigorous and robust, gamey and smoky, and packed with those spicy accents of cinnamon, licorice and nutmeg that fine old syrah acquires with time.